The foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea agreed Sunday to make "maximum efforts" to dissuade North Korea from conducting a satellite launch but failed to reach consensus on how the three countries will respond if Pyongyang launches the rocket.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Kim Sung Hwan appear to have called for Beijing's cooperation in seeking U.N. Security Council action against North Korea for tighter sanctions if the launch goes ahead, but Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi apparently showed reluctance to any move that could undermine North Korea's stability.
"We were able to increase our common views" on the issue, Gemba told journalists after his trilateral meeting with Kim and Yang in Ningbo, eastern China. "But frankly speaking, I would not say the three countries completely shared the same view."