North Korea will face U.N. statement

Five permanent member countries of the United Nations Security Council and Sixth is Japan, have reached an agreement on a draft statement about North Korea's long-range rocket launch last weekend, envoys said on Saturday.

British U.N. Ambassador John Sawers incorrigible the agreement, which came after a nearly two-hour meeting on Saturday that ended a weeklong deadlock on a Security Council response to North Korea's rocket launch last Sunday.

"We now have an understanding amongst the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Japan on a draft presidential statement to put to the other members of the 0council," Sawers told reporters.

Presidential statements are formal statements of council positions read out by the president of the Security Council. They are generally considered to be weaker than resolutions. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice declined to disclose any details of the statement but said, "We think this text sends a clear message."

The full 15-member Security Council was expected to receive the draft text at a closed-door meeting scheduled for 6:30 GMT, U.N. diplomats said. The agreement, they said, came after Japan said it would back a U.S.-drafted statement to be issued by the council.

The United States, Japan and South Korea say North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile, not a satellite, in violation of Security Council resolution 1718 banning the firing of such missiles.

The statement does not declare North Korea in "violation" of 1718, diplomats said it suggests the launch was not in conformity with it, a compromise that was acceptable to Beijing.

Japan had been approaching for a council determination that would declare Pyongyang in violation of resolution 1718 but Russia and China, which are undeviating veto-wielding council members, opposed this. They were not convinced the rocket launch, which North Korea says put a satellite into orbit, was a violation.