SEOUL - South Korea's environment minister joined a three-way meeting with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts to discuss pending environmental issues they seek to jointly tackle, the environment ministry in Seoul said Friday.

The tripartite meeting, the highest-level dialogue for environmental cooperation in the region, brought together Lee Maanee of South Korea, Zhou Shengxian of China and Kondo Shoichi of Japan in the South Korean southern port city of Busan.

The joint statement adopted at the meeting showed the ministers will step up their cooperation to address regional environmental issues such as climate change, green growth, biodiversity, dust and sandstorms.

Noting regional environmental impact of the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the ministers also discussed countermeasures against natural disasters, including active information-sharing.

The leaders also agreed to secure more budget to better tackle pending environmental concerns, according to the ministry.