Japan, South Korea and the United States on Friday held a high-level meeting on North Korean human rights violations, calling on the international community to shift from monitoring to action.

Their joint statement after the meeting in Washington, which they described as the first of its kind, said the countries had agreed to seek greater access to independent sources of information in North Korea, support escapees and increase global awareness of abuses perpetrated by its regime.

"The most important thing that we want to undertake while we're here is to raise the profile of these issues," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said as he began discussions with Japanese Ambassador to the United States Shigeo Yamada and South Korea's Unification Minister Kim Yung Ho.

He said the United States believes the violations that people in North Korea are facing are "becoming more severe, more urgent and more concerning."

While noting North Korea continues to invest resources on developing nuclear weapons and missiles rather than on improving the basic welfare of its citizens, Yamada highlighted Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals decades ago as further evidence of its "serious violation of human rights."

"With the aging of the abductees and their families, the abductions issue is a humanitarian and time-sensitive issue, with no time to spare," the envoy said.

Kim said the international community needs to send a "strong warning that no act of human rights abuse will be tolerated, and that there will be no safe haven anywhere in the world for the perpetrators."

"Furthermore, in response to the North Korean people's yearning for freedom, we must actually seek ways for them to access information and the truth from the outside world," the South Korean minister said.