Top South Korean, U.S. and Japanese nuclear envoys held talks here Wednesday on ways to put more pressure on North Korea and cajole it into returning to the negotiating table.

"This trilateral meeting is particularly timely, given the current North Korean situation that is uncertain and tense," Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's senior diplomat in charge of North Korea affairs, said at the outset of the gathering with his American and Japanese counterparts -- Sung Kim and Junichi Ihara.

Hwang was apparently referring to the North's recent provocations and threats. It announced the successful test-launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine and significant progress in miniaturizing nuclear bombs.

The secretive communist regime also reportedly purged defense minister Hyon Yong-chol.

Hwang said the three regional powers will stay close in dealing with Pyongyang in partnership with the other members of the now-suspended six-party nuclear talks.

The three nations will "cooperate very closely in consultation with China and Russia to respond effectively to the North Korean threats and to make progress in the denuclearization of North Korea," he stressed.

He plans to visit Beijing later this week for consultations with China's top nuclear negotiator, Wu Dawei, on the basis of the results of the tripartite discussions in Seoul.

"We are trying to make substantive progress in handling the North Korean nuclear issue in terms of deterrence, pressure and dialogue," a South Korean foreign ministry official said. (Yonhap)