South Korea and Japan on Thursday held their first energy dialogue in six years to discuss ways to boost cooperation on nuclear power generation, renewable energy, hydrogen and other energy issues, the industry ministry said.

The director-level dialogue in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan is the latest in a series of meetings between the two neighbors amid a thaw following three summits of their leaders in two months.

The two sides shared the need to work together on strengthening energy security and their net-zero goals and discussed the usage of such carbon-free energy resources as nuclear power and hydrogen, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

"Both nations are highly dependent on energy imports and have a similar energy consumption structure. So the two sides see a need to enhance policy coordination and cooperation in the field," a ministry official said.

Seoul and Tokyo will continue working-level talks to beef up energy ties, he added.

The bilateral energy policy dialogue was launched in 1986, through which they discussed cooperation on resources development, energy technologies and the overall energy policies. (Yonhap)