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On December 19, an emergency Security Council meeting failed to reach consensus urging peninsula calm with language condemning only Pyongyang. China and Russia want both sides blamed. They also urge reducing tensions and above all avoiding conflict.
Reuters said US, British and French delegations rejected Russia's proposal for a UN envoy mission to Seoul and Pyongyang, seeking "maximum restraint."
On December 21, Al Jazeera said Security Council negotiations "ended in an impasse, with Russia and China resisting an explicit condemnation of North Korea for last month's attack." As a result, a planned December 20 meeting was cancelled.
Korea Policy Institute analyst Christine Ahn believes "the threat of war with North Korea is very real." If so, Washington and Seoul will provoke it, not Pyongyang, with nothing strategic to gain. Moreover, it would "draw in both the United States, and potentially China, into a larger conflict that nobody wants....I think that (both US and South Korean) leaders are playing a very dangerous game that could really escalate into a full-blown war."
No one in the region wants one. With America embroiled in two unwinnable conflicts, it's hard imagining Washington does either. No matter. Given Obama's reckless agenda, no possibility can be ruled out.
Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said:
"Now we have a situation of very serious political tension and no game plan on the diplomatic side." He also warned that "within hours there may be a serious aggravation of tensions, a serious conflict for that matter."
A statement from Wang Min, China's ambassador and permanent UN representative said:
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