The UN Security Council met in emergency session to try to cool tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but the five big powers were split on whether to publicly blame North Korea for the crisis.
Pyongyang raised an alert for artillery units along its west coast in what appeared to be its latest move in a growing crisis between the two Koreas, Yonhap news agency said, quoting a South Korean government source.
The report was issued ahead of a planned live-fire drill by South Korea.
South Korea's defence ministry offered no immediate comment on the Yonhap report.
Bad weather has so far delayed the planned firing drill at a disputed border that has enraged Pyongyang.
Both sides have said they will use military means to defend what they say is their territory off the west coast, raising international concern that the standoff could quickly spiral out of control.
The 15 Security Council members were meeting behind closed doors to try to agree on a statement that Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he hoped would send a ‘restraining signal’ to both the North and the South.
Western envoys inside the meeting said the five permanent veto-wielding members were split over whether to blame North Korea for the crisis, as the United States, Britain, and France - along with Japan - demand, or to urge both sides to avoid acts that could deepen the crisis, as Russia and China want.
The Chinese, North Korea's staunchest supporters on the council, and Russians reject the idea of assigning blame to Pyongyang, the envoys told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Diplomats told Reuters that a Russian draft statement calls for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send a special envoy to Seoul and Pyongyang to urge a peaceful solution, and calls on the two sides to exercise ‘maximum restraint.’
The diplomats said the Russian draft was unacceptable to Washington, London, Paris and Tokyo.
A British draft statement, obtained by Reuters, has the council saying it ‘deplores’ North Korea's latest actions and urging Pyongyang to "act with restraint," but Russia and China have rejected that draft.
