South Korea and Japan are expected to resume their long-stalled security policy consultation meetings next month, a government source said Monday, after the top diplomats of the countries agreed on tighter cooperation over the weekend.

The foreign ministers from Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing agreed Saturday to improve trilateral cooperation in their rare meeting in Seoul, which was held after a near three-year hiatus due to conflict over their shared history.

"(Seoul) has yet to discuss specifics with Japan, but I think there's a need to hold the meeting sometime during next month," the source noted.

The bilateral director-level security consultation, first launched in 1997, has been stalled for the last five years amid soured South Korea-Japan relations.

The two countries attempted to resume the meeting of diplomatic and defense officials in late 2013, but all was in vain due to rising tension over territorial and historical issues under the Shinzo Abe administration.

Japan's move to refurbish its defense forces has also fueled regional tension along with Prime Minister Abe's much-denounced visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine that year.

A resumption of the security policy consultation meeting is widely expected to help Seoul and Tokyo recover their soured relations although they have yet to restore a summit meeting that has been stalled for nearly three years.

It is also timed to make Seoul's voice heard ahead of Japan's quickening moves to re-strengthen its military forces.

Japan and the U.S. are expected to revise their defense guidelines late next month as part of a legal process needed for the military build-up. The Japanese parliament is likely to start the related legislative efforts around May.

The source said South Korea may try to repeat its concern over Japan's military rearmament at the envisioned April meeting as Seoul remains opposed to any military action by Tokyo on the Korean Peninsula without advance approval. (Yonhap)