Japan near deal with China on North Korea message: Prime Minister

Japan is nearing agreement with China on how the UN Security Council should respond to North Koreas rocket launch, Prime Minister Taro Aso said after meeting his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on Saturday. Aso met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the beach resort of Pattaya in Thailand on the sidelines of a regional summit that collapsed in chaos because of demonstrations against the Thai government.
"I believe the thinking of our three countries has converged to a considerable degree on the content of the message the Security Council should send, regardless of the format," Aso told reporters. Both the South Korean and Japanese leaders told Wen they believed passing a binding UN resolution to declare Pyongyang in violation of a previous resolution banning the firing of ballistic missiles was desirable, Japanese officials said.