UN calls for restraint as South Korea plans exercise

The South Korean news agency, Yonhap, is reporting that the country's military is to begin a live artillery exercise Monday on an island close to the border with North Korea.

Earlier, residents of Yeonpyeong island, and four other islands, were told to move into air raid shelters The preparations by South Korea come at a time of rising tension with the North which has issued repeated threats of retaliation if the exercise goes ahead.

In New York, the United Nations Security Council has been meeting to discuss those tensions. This is what Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, had to say to reporters.