UN to meet on Koreas amid soaring tensions

The UN Security Council was to hold a meeting Sunday on escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula as Russia expressed anger that it was not organized earlier.

Russia has urged South Korea and the United States to call off a live-fire drill on the Korean frontier that the communist North has warned could lead to "disaster" between the two sides.

After summoning the South Korean and US ambassadors to Moscow on Friday, Russia had wanted the UN Security Council to meet in "emergency" session on Saturday, said its UN envoy Vitaly Churkin.

The United States is president of the Security Council for December and Churkin said the US mission had "declined to convene such a meeting today. We regret that. We believe that such a step by the president is a departure from the practice existing in the council."

"We assume that nothing will happen in the interim that will bring about a further aggravation on the Korean peninsula," Churkin told a press conference.

The United States rejected criticism of the arrangements of the meeting however.

It said the request was received Saturday, and after consulting with Russia and the other members of the 15-nation council the Sunday morning time was set.

"This meets other Security Council members' requests to have time to consult with their capitals and meets the Russian request for a timely meeting," said US mission spokesman Mark Kornblau.

The United States and Russia are two of the five heavyweight permanent powers on the council which can veto any resolution.

The UN Security Council has not yet made any statement or taken any action over North Korea's artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong island last month in which two South Korean civilians and two South Korean marines were killed.

China, another permanent member, has blocked demands for a strongly worded statement against North Korean, including any suggestion that North Korea staged the attack, diplomats said.

Talks over a statement are now in deadlock and diplomats have said it is now possible no Security Council condemnation will be made.

The North has threatened an even deadlier attack on the South if the drill scheduled for between December 18 and 21 is staged on Yeonpyeong, which is on the disputed sea border border between the two.

The North said the upcoming exercise "would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from exploding and escape its ensuing disaster."

It said its military has already threatened "decisive and merciless punishment" for such an action and "does not make an empty talk."

Pyongyang disputes the Yellow Sea border drawn by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 war. It claims the waters around Yeonpyeong and other South Korean frontline islands as its own maritime territory.

The first shelling of civilian areas since the war sparked outrage in the South, which rushed more troops and guns to the frontline islands.

South Korean officials said the upcoming exercise is likely to be held on Monday or Tuesday when the weather is better.

Russia and China have urged the South to cancel its plan. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said Beijing was "deeply concerned and worried" about the situation on the peninsula, the state Xinhua news agency reported.

On Saturday, the foreign ministers of both countries called for restraint on the Korean peninsula and urged all parties concerned to avoid escalation.

"China firmly opposes any actions to cause tension and worsen the situation, and demands both sides on the peninsula show calmness and restraint," China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in phone talks with Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

US politician Bill Richardson, who is visiting Pyongyang, meanwhile described the situation as a "tinderbox."

The North accused the United States of stirring up South Korea to stage a provocative act.

It said the plan for the drill was reached during a visit to Seoul last week by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The North said the United States "does not hesitate to harass peace and stability of a country for meeting its strategic interests.

US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley on Friday defended the South's right to hold the drill in the face of North Korea's "ongoing provocations".

But he said Washington trusts that its ally the South "will be very cautious in terms of what it does".