Japan, South Korea and the United States are planning to hold talks on North Korea from next Tuesday through Thursday, sources told Yonhap News.

Top diplomats from the three countries handling the North Korea issue are scheduled to hold the meeting in Washington to assess Pyongyang's nuclear programs and discuss future steps.

Cho Tae-yong, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs will be joined by the U.S. Representative Glyn Davies and Japan's top negotiator Shinsuke Sugiyama in Washington, sources said.

Earlier this year, Pyongyang's long-range missile and nuclear tests in violation of U.N. resolutions led to an almost daily stream of threats between South Korea and North Korea as well as between Pyongyang and Washington, creating tensions over the Korean Peninsula.

The talks in Washington would be the first high-level meeting among the three nations in six months and South Korean representative Cho's first meeting with the two officials.

"It would be representative Cho's first meeting with the U.S. and Japanese officials. So, it is sort of an introductory session," Yonhap quoted a diplomatic source as saying.

According to the White House, the U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday renewed their strong commitment to stability and dialogue in the East China Sea. The renewal of their commitment comes just days after a summit between Obama and his Chinese Counterpart Xi Jinping in California.

Besides the North Korea issue, the three representatives are likely to discuss the results of the California summit between Xi Jinping and Barack Obama.

In a bid to ease the tensions over the Korean Peninsula, Seoul and Pyongyang were scheduled to hold the first high-level talks in six years this week but later the meeting was cancelled as a result of disagreement over the level of chief delegates for the talks.

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