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By Park Byung-soo, staff writer and Jung Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent

The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan have expressed concern at North Korea’s coming rocket launch and urged the North to abandon its plans.

Meeting Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday in Ningbo, China, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Sung-hwan said that the launch of the Kwangmyonsong-3 would be a clear violation of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution and emphasized the need to convey a strong message to the North Korean leadership, diplomatic sources reported. Kim added that he hoped that China would play a role in responding to the launch. He also expressed to his Chinese counterpart his belief that sanctions in accordance with the violation of a UNSC resolution would be needed if North Korea went ahead forcibly with the launch.

Yang responded by saying, “China is concerned. I hope that each country will see the long-term big picture and find peaceful solutions to the issues at play and diffuse tension on the Korean Peninsula by continuing to stay calm and sustaining dialogue,” Xinhua News reported. Yang also reportedly said he would do his best to discourage North Korea from launching the Kwangmyongsong-3. A diplomatic source reported that Yang called for close communication between South Korea, China and the UN in the process of responding to the launch of the rocket.

Kim also held a separate ministerial meeting with Japanese foreign minister Koichiro Gemba and agreed on cooperation between Korea and Japan in the process of seeking a response from the UNSC if the launch goes ahead.

The Japanese government is leaning toward suggesting the adoption of an emergency statement at the G8 meeting of foreign ministers in Washington on Thursday if the launch takes place, the Asahi Shimbun reported. “The Japanese government has decided, in the event that North Korea launches a missile on the 12th, to prearrange the announcement of an emergency statement at the G8 meeting of foreign ministers which is to be held in Washington on the same day,” the paper said. “Japan has decided to push this forward by cooperating with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and the US and Japanese governments are preparing the specifics.” Iran’s nuclear program is expected to be the G8 meeting‘s main topic.

On Sunday, Asahi Shimbun reported that a Communist Party of China official as saying, “There is a new sense of crisis. Chinese movements over the past few days allow a glimpse of its intention to prevent North Korea’s missile launch at all costs.” The newspaper interpreted such actions on the part of China, which differ from those at the time of North Korea‘s 2009 missile launch, as attributable to the fact that “its role and responsibility as a major power in the international community have greatly increased.”

Regarding the US’s actions, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, “The US government is thinking of adopting a critical UN Security Council resolution or presidential statement in the event that North Korea launches a missile and will suspend the food aid upon which it agreed with North Korea in February.” The newspaper added, however, “The US is being cautious when it comes to examining the scrapping of the entire agreement or tightening sanctions, as this could lead to a third nuclear test on the part of North Korea.”

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, meanwhile, reported on Sunday that reporters from AP, AFP, Reuters, CNN, NBC and Kyodo News had visited Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday at the invitation of a North Korean space technology committee. Foreign journalists visited the Dongchang-ri launch site and confirmed the preparations.

Japan has placed patriot missiles in seven locations, including the defense ministry in Tokyo and Okinawa and dispatched aegis destroyers carrying SM3 interceptor missiles to three East China Sea locations to intercept the North’s rocket in case there is a risk that the missile launched by North Korea fall within Japanese territory. Speaking in Okinawa on Saturday, Japanese vice foreign minister Shu Watanabe said, “I am certain that, in the event that the missile launched by North Korea falls, our interception will have an accuracy rate of more than 80%.”

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