Senior diplomats of South Korea and the United States will meet next week to discuss issues of mutual concern, including North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats, the foreign ministry here said Wednesday.

Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam will hold a strategic dialogue with US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in Seoul on Oct. 18, according to the ministry.

The high-level meeting marks the seventh of its kind and comes after the latest gathering held in Washington in June 2014. It is also the first such meeting after President Moon Jae-in took office in May. 

Lim and Sullivan are expected to discuss cooperation on major issues including their bilateral relations and North Korea's nuclear program. They will also prepare for US President Donald Trump's planned trip to Seoul in November, the ministry said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the two will hold a trilateral meeting with their Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama the same day to discuss cooperation on the problem of the North's nuclear program and other regional and global issues. They last met in Washington in January.

The ministry said that Lim and Sugiyama will also have a separate bilateral meeting.

The meetings come amid growing tension after the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation test early last month. It was followed by an bombastic war of words between Pyongyang and Washington, both of which hinted at military action against each other. (Yonhap)