UN Security Council meets over Korea woes

A South Korean fishing ship sets out to sea as a warship patrols the sea border off the west coast, Sunday. Tensions rose ahead of a live-fire artillery drill scheduled for early this week on Yeonpyeong Island by the South Korean military. / Korea Times photo by Lee Sang-hak

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Diplomatic maneuvers shifted into high gear Sunday, as South Korea plans to go ahead with a live-fire artillery drill as early as today despite North Korea’s increased threats of further retaliations.

The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) met Sunday to discuss the standoff, amid concerns fueled by speculation that a war may be unavoidable if the two Koreas engage in another artillery exchange.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member, requested the UNSC hold an emergency meeting after North Korea vowed strikes against the South in case the latter goes ahead with the drill in waters near the border island of Yeonpyeong in the West Sea.

The South Korean military said Sunday that there has been no change in the drill plan, stressing it is a monthly routine training the military has done over the years.

Officials of the Joint of Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the South would stage the one-day exercise between Saturday and Tuesday, weather permitting.

The UNSC meeting took place days after Russia and China requested South and North Korea to be restrained to prevent the situation from evolving into something uncontrollable.

China and Russia calculate the standoff put their interests at risk, leading them to ratchet up diplomatic efforts with the two Koreas as tensions are showing few signs of easing after the North shelled a South Korean island on Nov. 23.

The deadly attack killed four South Koreans, including two civilians and injured 18. No accurate reports of North Korean casualties caused by South Korea’s counter-attack have been made public.

South Korea postponed the live-fire artillery drill near the western sea border to early this week due to weather conditions.

Pyongyang has beefed up its military forces on the west coast, a government official said.

"The North Korean artillery unit along the Yellow Sea has raised its preparedness level," the official said, adding that several fighter jets that had been held inside air force hangars of the west coast are now on the tarmac.

In a statement issued under the name of an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman Saturday, North Korea renewed its hostile rhetoric to attack the South if it goes ahead with the drill.

The communist state said if the South crosses “the red line” by continuing with the live-fire drill as scheduled, the Korean Peninsula will be faced with a catastrophic security situation and deadly consequences will be unavoidable.

It blamed the United States for “prodding” South Korea to be provocative.

The spokesman warned that the North never issued empty statements.

The statement came a day after North Korea warned of “self-defense strikes” against the South, which it described will be deadlier than its November attack.

North Korea stepped up the hostile rhetoric on the same day when top diplomats from Russia and China had a phone conversation over the escalating tensions between the two Koreas.

During the conversation, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov expressed worries over the situation in the region.

The two sides expressed their willingness to keep close communications and coordination with each other to prevent things from getting worse, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.

Before the phone conversation, Russia expressed its concern over the North’s pledge of more attacks on the South if the latter goes ahead with the drill to Kim Yong-jae, North Korean ambassador to Russia.

China requested that South Korea cancel the exercise.

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