A senior Chinese diplomat said Saturday that the response of the UN Security Council to the rocket launch by DPRK "should be conducive to the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asia, and to promoting the process of the Six-Party Talks."

"After several days of hard negotiations, relevant members of the Security Council have reached consensus on issuing a presidential statement on the rocket launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and they also reached consensus on the content of the draft statement," Zhang Yesui, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, made the statement at the end of the closed-door consultations of the 15-nation Security Council.

Five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Japan reached consensus on Saturday on the draft presidential statement on the rocket launch by the DPRK, and the members are reporting it to their capitals.

"We always maintain that the response of the Security Council to this issue should be cautious and proportionate," he said. "The response of the Security Council should be conducive to the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asia, and to promoting the process of the Six-Party Talks."

The Six-Party Talks group China, Russia, DPRK, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Also speaking to the press after the closed council meeting on Saturday, the president of the UN Security Council for the month of April, Mexican UN Ambassador Claude Heller, said that the draft presidential statement, presented to the 15-nation Council by U.S. UN ambassador, is "a positive compromise" and the Security Council is "acting in a unified manner."

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters that "we are pleased to have just shared a proposed draft presidential statement which we think is strong and send a clear message to the DPRK."

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2009)