Emergency UN talks on Korean tensions
Russia called for the meeting, and Moscow wants the UN’s most powerful body to adopt a statement calling on North Korea and South Korea “to exercise maximum restraint” and urging immediate diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions.
Russia borders North Korea and after China, is considered the country with the closest ties to the reclusive communist government in Pyongyang.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Saturday that the situation on the Korean Peninsula “directly affects the national security interests of the Russian Federation”.
South Korea’s military plans to conduct one-day live fire drills by tomorrow on the same front-line island the North shelled last month as the South conducted a similar exercise.
The North warned that the drills would cause it to strike back harder than it did last month, when two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed on Yeonpyeong Island.
South Korea says the drills are routine, defensive, and should not be considered threatening.
The US supports Seoul, a staunch ally, and says any country has a right to train for self-defence.
But Russia and China, fellow veto-wielding permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council, have expressed concern.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has urged South Korea to cancel the drill to avoid escalating tensions.
A Russian draft presidential statement circulated to Security Council members stresses the need for efforts “to ensure a de-escalation of tension” between the two Koreas and a “resumption of dialogue and resolution of all problems dividing them exclusively through peaceful diplomatic means”.
It asks secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to immediately send an envoy to both countries “to consult on urgent measures to settle peacefully the current crisis situation in the Korean Peninsula”.
Marines carrying rifles conducted routine patrols yesterday on Yeonpyeong Island.
About 240 residents, officials and journalists remain on Yeonpyeong, said Lim Byung-chan, an official from Ongjin County, which governs the island.
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