Senior diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan met here Wednesday and reaffirmed the importance of trilateral cooperation in resolving North Korea's nuclear conundrum, the State Department said.

The meeting involved Ma Sang-yoon, director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's policy planning bureau, Brian Hook, senior policy adviser to the US secretary of state and director of policy planning, and Satoshi Suzuki, Japan's deputy foreign minister for foreign policy.

"During the meeting, the participants exchanged views on a wide range of regional and global concerns and reaffirmed the importance of trilateral coordination to resolve the threat posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," Alicia Edwards, spokesperson for the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, told Yonhap.

North Korea was expected to be high on the agenda as the meeting followed Pyongyang's first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4. The test fueled concerns the North may be closer to developing a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon to the US mainland.

The three sides also discussed coordination of policy in Southeast Asia and increased trilateral cooperation globally, according to Edwards. (Yonhap)