UNSC meet inconclusive drill begins

An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council over soaring tensions in the Korean Peninsula ended inconclusive with the powerful 15-member group of the world body failing to arrive at a consensus.A draft resolution, circulated by the Russian Federation, after more than eight hours of debate, was sent back to the Capitals of the 15-members of the Security Council.US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, who also heads the presidency of the Security Council for the month of December, said the "gap" between the member nations is unlikely to be bridged.

North Korea has warned of "catastrophe" if South Korea goes ahead with its military's planned one-day, live-fire drills on the same front-line island the North shelled last month.The emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called at the request of Russia, which insisted that South Korea should not go ahead with its plans.

US came out in support of South Korea arguing that it had the right to carry out exercise in self-defense.Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said the idea of the Secretary General appointing an envoy did receive strong support from a number of members of the Security Council and hoped this idea could still be pursued.

"Now we have a situation of a very serious political tension and no game plan on the diplomatic side, because the six-party talks are not operative and various parties are saying that they are not prepared to return to the talks even in informal setting and there are no other diplomatic activities," he told reporters outside the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York. South Korea launched a live-fire military exercise on a border island on Monday, despite North Korean threats of deadly retaliation, as UN diplomacy on the regional crisis broke down.

But in an apparent sign of compromise over its nuclear ambitions, CNN said North Korea had agreed with US troubleshooter Bill Richardson to permit the return of UN atomic inspectors to ease tensions on the peninsula."The drill has started," a ministry spokesman told a news agency around 2:30 pm:Yonhap news agency said two destroyers had also been deployed in forward positions in the Yellow Sea.