The Japanese media said on Tuesday that South Korea, the United States and Japan may hold defense ministers' talks next month in Hawaii. 

Japan's public broadcaster NHK quoted an official from the Japanese defense ministry as saying that consultation is under way among the three nations to arrange the talks in the middle of January. 

The report said the meeting will bring together South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook and his American and Japanese counterparts Lloyd Austin and Kishi Nobuo. 

The previous trilateral defense ministers' talks were held in November 2019 in Thailand on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus.

NHK said the Hawaii meeting, if realized, is expected to discuss ways to realize the denuclearization of North Korea and responses to the North's ballistic missile tests in violation of UN resolutions.