South Korea and Japan held a joint meeting of senior diplomats and defense officials in Seoul for the first time in five years.

According to the foreign ministry on Monday, the two sides exchanged views on the security environment of Northeast Asia, including North Korea's nuclear issue, the current state of bilateral diplomatic and defense policies and cooperation between the neighboring countries as well as with the U.S.

During the meeting that lasted around two and a half hours, the two parties also agreed to foster future-oriented cooperation in security.

The two are also expected to have discussed North Korea's recent moves and ways to cooperate in response to the escalating threat of the regime's provocations, as well as a possible review of the normalization of the General Security of Military Information Agreement(GSOMIA).

The so-called two-plus-two meeting brought together Seo Min-jung, director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs at the foreign ministry and her Japanese counterpart Takehiro Funakoshi, and Woo Kyoung-suk, deputy director-general for international policy at the defense ministry with his Japanese counterpart Atsushi Ando.

This comes after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed last month to mend ties soured by historical disputes and step up security cooperation in the wake of North Korea's escalating provocations.