N Korea lines up missiles as US-South drill begins

YEONPYEONG (S KOREA): China on Sunday pressed the emergency button for talks to resolve the crisis on the Korean peninsula, as North Korea moved its surface-to-surface missiles on launchpads in the Yellow Sea and the United States and South Korea began a massive naval drill on its troubled waters.

China urged six-party talks (including the US, Japan and Russia) at the earliest possible in December but Seoul and Tokyo only said they would "study" the proposal. At an unscheduled meeting earlier in the day, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak told a visiting Chinese delegation that Beijing must "do more" to help.

China's move to bring the two Koreas to the negotiating table comes after global pressure on Beijing to take a more responsible role in the standoff and try to rein in ally Pyongyang. It has, however, made clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead.

Yonhap news agency in Seoul said North Korea, whose ailing leader, Kim Jong-il, is preparing to hand over power to his youngest son, had moved surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles to frontline areas, days after it shelled Yeonpyeong island, killing four people. The North's official KCNA news agency warned of retaliatory action if its territory was violated.