Diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan called on China to exert its clout over North Korea to stop the recalcitrant regime's "destabilizing" activities during their phone talks this week, the State Department said Friday. South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister for Strategy and Intelligence Cho Koo-rae, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, and Japan's Director General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Hiroyuki Namazu held a trilateral call on Tuesday. "The officials called on the PRC to use its influence with the DPRK to halt the regime's destabilizing activity," the department said in a media note. PRC and DPRK stand for the official names of China and North Korea, the People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The three officials also reiterated the need for Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table. "The three officials discussed efforts to deepen trilateral security cooperation, bring global attention to the DPRK's malicious cyber activities, and call on the DPRK to return to dialogue rather than continue its reckless and dangerous actions that escalate tension on the Korean Peninsula," the department said. They also talked about the deepening military alignment between Russia and North Korea. "They discussed the DPRK's deepening relationship with Russia, including arms transfers, which help prolong Russia's war against Ukraine, undermine the global non-proliferation regime, violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, and upend regional stability," it said. Kritenbrink reiterated the U.S.' "ironclad" commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan. Source: Yonhap News Agency