SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held his first telephone call with Japan's new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday and agreed a united response together with the United States is needed to counter North Korea's threats, his office said.

In his first phone call with the South Korean leader, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stressed the importance of the two countries’ maintaining close communications,

South Korea looks forward to working together with Japan's new cabinet to forge positive ties with its closest neighbour and partner, its foreign ministry said, in comments made after the election of Shigeru Ishiba as leader of Japan's ruling party.

Tokyo-based staffing startup Lapras has partnered with Wanted Lab, a major South Korean recruitment company, to start a business that introduces South Korean engineers to Japanese companies. Lapras has raised 400 million yen ($2.8 million) from Wanted's Japanese subsidiary and others.

North Korea is likely to formalize further Kim Jong Un's "hostile" stance toward the South next week when its legislature meets to revise the country's constitution, according to a new assessment out of Seoul.

North Korea's conference emphasizes training government officials to address personnel administration and discipline issues.

North Korea has been quiet on South Korea since August, prompting analysts to suspect that the “unusual” silence could be linked to its plan to amend the country’s constitution to ensure that Seoul is seen as the “primary foe,

South Korea said it and the U.S. will respond resolutely and overwhelmingly to any use of nuclear weapons by the North.

Eager citizens waved flags and aged veterans stood at attention as armor rumbled through central Seoul’s concrete canyons, while a line of Apache attack helicopters whirled overhead and formations of fighter jets thundered through the clouds.