(VOVworld) - Senior diplomats from Japan, the US, and South Korea agreed Saturday in Tokyo to closely cooperate in seeking a strong and effective UN Security Council resolution on Pyongyang following its recent nuclear test.

US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken (L), Japanese Vice FM Akitaka Saiki (C) and South Korea's First Vice FM Lim Sung-nam at a joint news conference in Tokyo on Saturday. (Photo: KYODO)

At a press conference following talks with US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lim Sung Nam, South Korea's first vice foreign minister, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki said Japan hopes that China, a member of the UN Security Council, will cooperate in adopting a tough Security Council resolution against Pyongyang. Blinken said no challenge is greater than the one posed by North Korea in this region adding that Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, and the US have a profound stake in the stability of this region and that they must act together. Lim said the three officials have reaffirmed that the allies of South Korea, Japan, and the US are "ready to respond to any provocative acts by North Korea."

On Wednesday heads of the delegations of the three countries to the 6-party talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula convened a meeting in Seoul and agreed to step up new sanctions in response to recent Pyongyang’s H-bomb test.