WASHINGTON -- The United States and Japan agreed Thursday to bolster their alliance in the face an increasingly belligerent North Korea with growing nuclear and missile capabilities.

The allies held so-called "2+2" talks involving their foreign and defense ministers amid a lull in tensions that spiked following North Korea's two tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

"The Ministers condemned in the strongest terms North Korea's recurring provocations and development of nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, which have entered a new phase, and pose an increasing threat to regional and international peace and stability," a joint statement said after the meeting. "The Ministers committed to bolster the capabilities of the Alliance to deter and respond to these threats."

In their discussions, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and Foreign Minister Taro Kono, "reaffirmed the alliance's commitment to the security of Japan through the full range of capabilities, including US nuclear forces."

They also agreed to continue to apply pressure on North Korea, together with other countries, to compel it to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and called on the international community to strictly enforce all UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning Pyongyang.

The latest resolution was adopted earlier this month in response to the two ICBM tests, and aims to slash the impoverished country's annual export revenues by a third.

The ministers, the statement said, urged China to do more to rein in its wayward ally.

Just last week, the communist regime threatened to fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles over Japan into waters near the US territory of Guam. After US President Donald Trump warned the military was "locked and loaded," North Korean leader Kim Jong-un suspended the plan Tuesday.

"We would take immediate, specific actions to take it down," Mattis said at a press conference following the meeting, referring to any missile launch.

He added there are "strong military consequences" to hostilities initiated by the North.

Tillerson said the ministers reaffirmed their "mutual commitment to confronting threats to regional peace and security."

They agreed that the North's missile launches, including the ICBM tests in July, are "unacceptable provocations" that "must stop immediately."

Still, Tillerson held out the possibility of talks with Pyongyang.

Military action is "not our preferred pathway," he said, stressing the US continues to enlist the support of its partners and allies to pressure Pyongyang to the point that it realizes its future is "bleak, and will only become bleaker if they continue this pathway."

"So that is our effort, to cause them to want to engage in talks, but engage in talks with an understanding that these talks will lead to a different conclusion than talks of the past," he said.

The annual meeting was held for the first time since the launch of the Trump administration.

The ministers also called for an end to North Korea's "systematic human rights violations" while also demanding the immediate release of all foreigners held in the country, including Japanese abductees and US detainees.

They noted the need to enhance trilateral cooperation with South Korea by sharing more information and expanding three-way exercises, including missile warning, anti-submarine warfare, and maritime interdiction drills, the statement said. (Yonhap)