Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada held a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday.
Both of them shared the view that sanctions on North Korea will not be removed until it returns to nuclear talks and takes serious steps toward scrapping its nuclear arms program.
North Korea has come under increasing pressure to return to the forum it has boycotted for more than a year.
The U.N. imposed sanctions on North Korea after its nuclear test last year.
The nuclear talks began in 2003, and involve the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
