China declined to join a majority of UN Security Council members in condemning the North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island in November, Bloomberg reported, citing a diplomat present at the UN meeting. South Korea is planning to conduct a live-fire artillery drill in the area in response to the shelling, and Kim Kwan Jin, South Korea’s new defense minister, said he will respond militarily, including deploying air strikes, if North Korea attacks again. Russia has called for an emergency session of the Security Council to ease tensions. In related news, a Chinese fishing boat collided with a South Korean naval patrol ship on Sunday then capsized. South Korea has detained eight of the crew. One crewmember died after being rescued from the water and another is missing, adding to tensions between China and South Korea. According to Seoul, the incident occurred when a patrol vessel approached 50 Chinese ships fishing illegally in South Korean waters. One ship rammed the patrol boat, allowing the rest to escape.
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