U.S. and Japanese diplomats stationed in South Korea on Thursday stressed the importance of stepping up their trilateral security cooperation to address North Korea's escalating military provocations.

Joy Sakurai, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, made the point during a seminar hosted by the Institute for Global Strategy and Cooperation, emphasizing that three-way cooperation is "crucial" for maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

"And all of these achievements are very clear and tangible, and they make us all safer from threats posed by the DPRK's continued development of its unlawful nuclear ballistic missile programs and the growing military cooperation with Russia, as well as other regional threats," she said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

She also noted that their "ballistic missile early warning information system that went online this year" is showing "early results."

In December 2023, South Korea, the United States and Japan launched a trilateral system for the real-time sharing of North Korean missile warning data in a move to beef up cooperation against Pyongyang's growing military threats.

Taisuke Mibae, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, also highlighted the need to "accelerate the momentum" for trilateral cooperation on the international stage, including the U.N. Security Council. (Yonhap)