UN chief urges North Korea to show restraint

Ban Ki-moon's comments come after Pyongyang warns that if Seoul goes ahead with planned drills he will respond with big attack.

ban ki moon in bishkek 311 (photo credit: AP)
ban ki moon in bishkek 311
(photo credit: AP)
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged North Korea to show restraint and called on both Koreas to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The UN chief's comments followed Pyongyang's warning that if Seoul goes ahead with planned artillery drills on a front-line island in the coming days it will respond with a bigger attack than it did on Nov. 23 when its shelling killed four South Koreans.
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Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, called the Nov. 23 attack on the tiny island of Yeonpyeong "one of the gravest provocations since the end of Korean war."
The secretary-general also called North Korea's recent disclosure of a new uranium enrichment facility "quite alarming."