South Korea, the United States and Japan are set to hold high-level talks this week as tensions persist over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs with indications of an imminent atomic weapons test.

On Tuesday, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam is scheduled to meet with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts in Seoul to discuss their response to North Korea's continued provocations following its fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.

North Korea has threatened to conduct another nuclear test and fire ballistic rockets capable of carrying nuclear warheads in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on the regime last month.

The three-way consultations will bring together Lim, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki to discuss the implementation of the U.N. sanctions as well as each country's unilateral sanctions against the North.

The vice ministers are also expected to send a strong warning to Pyongyang that any further provocations will be met by stronger punishments from the international community.

The meeting comes on the heels of last month's trilateral summit in Washington during which the three countries' leaders agreed to take further steps to strengthen their security cooperation in the face of the growing threat posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programs.

On Monday, President Park Geun-hye ordered the military to be ready to sternly retaliate should North Korea stage another provocation, saying signs of "preparations for a fifth nuclear test have been detected."

South Korea's defense ministry also said it is closely watching movements in the North amid increased activities at the country's main nuclear test site in Punggye-ri.

The next nuclear test, if carried out, could be the underground detonation of a warhead, a ministry spokesman said.

Concerns have grown that the communist state may test another nuclear device or missile to mark the birthday of its late founding leader, Kim Il-sung, which fell on Friday, and next month's congress of the ruling Workers' Party.

On Friday, the North attempted to launch a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile off its eastern coast but failed, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The trilateral consultations were first held in Washington in April last year and again in Tokyo in January.

Lim is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Blinken and Saiki ahead of the three-way meeting. (Yonhap)