U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, right, South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong Kun, left, with Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori, center, pose for photographers prior to their trilateral meeting at the Iikura Guesthouse on July 21, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Senior diplomats from Japan, the United States and South Korea began a meeting on Wednesday on regional security issues including affirming the importance of closer cooperation in their bid to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

       The talks in Tokyo involving Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong Kun are also expected to address China's growing military presence in the East and South China seas.

       The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden sees trilateral cooperation as a key element in promoting security in Asia.

       It is hoping for an improvement in relations between Tokyo and Seoul, its two key allies in Asia, which have sunk to their lowest level in decades over issues stemming from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

       The talks will also likely touch on ways to resolve past abductions of Japanese and South Korean nationals by North Korean agents.

       The talks follow a Japan-U.S. bilateral meeting on Tuesday in which Mori and Sherman shared concern about China's increasing unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the region by force.

       The two also agreed on the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, where mainland China is increasing pressure on the self-ruled island, which it regards as a renegade province.

       China also lays claim to the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea. It has frequently sent its coast guard vessels near the islets, which it calls Diaoyu, including in Japan's territorial waters, despite protests from Tokyo.

       China also has overlapping claims with its neighbors in the South China Sea, and has raised concerns by militarizing outposts in disputed areas.

       When the top U.S., Japanese and South Korean envoys on North Korea met face to face in Soul last month, they reaffirmed the need to work closely toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the early resumption of dialogue with Pyongyang.

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