UNITED NATIONS: North Korea's Deputy UN Ambassador said Tuesday's shelling incident close to the border between North and South Korea should be discussed by the two countries, not the UN Security Council.

Envoy Pak Tok-hun was speaking to Reuters after North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing two soldiers, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.

“It should not be discussed by the Security Council but should be discussed inter-Korea between the North and South,” Pak said as Security Council diplomats consulted on how they might respond to the incident.

“The Security Council is dealing with threats to international peace and security,” he said. “This is a regional issue between the North and South.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier condemned the North Korean attack and voiced his “utmost concern” to British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the current president of the Security Council.

Lyall Grant did briefly raise the issue during a closed-door meeting on the Middle East, although an envoy present told Reuters the British diplomat merely announced that he was in consultations with the other 14 member states on what to do about the Korean incident.

Western diplomats said it was unclear what, if any, action the council might take given China's reluctance to see its neighbor pilloried by the 15-nation panel. China, like Britain, France, Russia and the United States, has veto powers and can block any Security Council action.

“The attack was one of the gravest incidents since the end of the Korean War,” Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, said in his statement, adding that he called for “immediate restraint.” – Reuters