It was issued after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso met on the sidelines of a chaotic regional summit in Thailand.
Their meeting came as the U.N. Security Council appeared to be making progress in breaking a deadlock over how to respond to North Korea's April 5 rocket launch. Japan has hinted it will back off from a demand for a new Security Council resolution, brightening prospects for a united response by the council.
North Korea launched what it said was satellite, though the United States, Japan and South Korea said it was actually testing long-range missile technology, which the North is banned from doing under a 2006 Security Council resolution. North Korea says a satellite launch is allowed under a U.N. space treaty.
Lee, Wen and Aso agreed that the specific format and wording of the message to North Korea should be worked out at the Security Council, Kim said.
Their 30-minute meeting took place following the abrupt cancellation of a broader gathering of regional leaders after Thai anti-government protesters stormed the venue of the East Asia Summit in the beach resort of Pattaya.
The U.N. Security Council has been divided since meeting in emergency session the day of North Korea's launch, with Japan and China at odds over how to proceed. Tokyo pushed for a full resolution, while China pressed for a lighter reprimand.
Japan's Kyodo News agency, citing diplomatic sources it did not identify, reported late Friday from New York that the Japanese were expected to back off from their demand that the council adopt a binding resolution and instead accept a draft presidential statement circulated Thursday night by the U.S.
The statement, drafted by China in consultation with Washington, would "condemn" North Korea's suspected test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile, Kyodo cited the sources as saying.
Japan's mass-circulation Yomiuri newspaper reported Saturday from New York that the statement would also contain other points, including a demand that North Korea abstain from more launches, a call for the drawing up of further economic sanctions against it and the early resumption of six-party talks aimed at the North's denuclearization.
North Korea has warned that any move to censure it at the U.N. could prompt its withdrawal from the nuclear disarmament talks, which involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.
