The U.S.’s top envoy for North Korea on Friday said his country remains committed to direct diplomacy with North Korea, wrapping up a trip to East Asia aimed at coordinating policy with counterparts in the region.

Stephen Biegun, who serves as both the U.S. deputy secretary of state and U.S. special representative for North Korea, held meetings in Tokyo with Japanese officials, after similar meetings earlier this week in Seoul.

“In his meetings, Deputy Secretary Biegun emphasized continued U.S. readiness to engage in dialogue with the DPRK,” said the State Department in a press release Friday.

The statement added that Biegun also discussed regional cooperation with Japan and “countering efforts by those who seek to undermine good governance and the rules-based international order.”

While in Tokyo, the secretary met with Shigeki Takizaki, the director-general of the Asia and Pacific Affairs Bureau in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to a Japanese readout of the meeting, the two discussed North Korea, as well as “affirmed continuing close Japan-U.S. and Japan-U.S.-South Korean coordination towards resolving various issues including [North Korean] abductions, nuclear weapons, and missiles.”

Secretary Biegun also made courtesy calls on Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi and defense minister Taro Kono. Both said they discussed continuing bilateral cooperation on issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as North Korea.

“We exchanged opinions regarding future responses and views on the domestic situation of North Korea, as well as relations between North Korea and nearby countries,” said Kono at a press conference on Friday, according to a Ministry of Defense transcript.

He also said that he reiterated Japanese concerns regarding any missiles launched by North Korea.

“The launching of North Korean missiles, even if these are short range missiles, are clearly in violation of [United Nations] Security Council resolutions,” he said. “We must send a firm message on the part of international society.”

Biegun’s meetings with the ministers and the director-general come after an evening dinner on Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, vice foreign minister Takeo Akiba. The Kyodo news service reported that the deputy secretary of state met with Secretary General Shigeru Kitamura of the Japanese National Security Secretariat.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. State Department declined to comment on the record regarding the specifics of Secretary Biegun’s visit to Japan.

Biegun’s trip to South Korea and Japan to coordinate regional cooperation come as American officials continued to hint at strong interest in resuming direct negotiations with North Korea.

“We continue to work to establish dialogue and have substantive conversations about how we might deliver…peace and stability to the entire peninsula,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told foreign reporters on Thursday in Washington.

Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump said that he would hold a summit with Chairman Kim Jong Un “if I thought it was going to be helpful,” according to the transcript from an interview.

But North Korea has for the most part moved to rebuff these U.S. advances, with a statement by top official Kim Yo Jong on Friday dismissing another summit as “useless.”

“I doubt that things like the DPRK-U.S. summit talks would happen this year,” said Kim Yo Jong, sister to Chairman Kim Jong Un, in a statement carried by state media. “I am of the view that the DPRK-U.S. summit talks is not needed this year and beyond… and for our part, it is not beneficial to us unless the U.S. shows decisive change in its stand.”

Edited by Oliver Hotham