The United Nations Security Council apparently favoured dispatching an envoy to both North and South Korea, tasked with trying defuse the rising military tensions that may threaten to engulf the two sides into another Korean War, dpa reported.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters following a closed-door, seven-hour meeting of the 15-nation Security council that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should consider sending the envoy, an action that would not require the council's approval and is "not a controversial subject."
Churkin said that if the council had approved his idea for issuing a call for exercising "maximum restraint," the issue of the envoy would have been approved promptly.
Russia spearheaded efforts in the Security Council to try to head off any military conflict between North and South Korea. Churkin said the call for maximum restraint was appropriate considering the lack of a diplomatic vehicle to lower tensions, including a return to the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, Russia, China, the US and Japan.
Churkin said the council could not agree on a common position late Sunday.
He said council members showed preference for a proposal to send a UN representative to hold talks with both North and South Korea.
Churkin said the council may meet Monday to pursue its discussion on the Korean peninsula.
...