North Korean officials postpone warship talks with US

North Korea has postponed talks scheduled with the US-led United Nations Command about the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

Pyongyang cited administrative reasons for the delay, UN officials said.

The sinking of the Cheonan killed 46 people and sharply raised tension between the North and South Korea.

The meeting was due to take place on Tuesday in the truce village of Panmunjom. Its aim was to pave the way for future higher-level discussions.

The UN Command - which oversees the armistice that ended the Korean War - said the North had not proposed a new time for the talks.

Chilled ties

The Cheonan went down on 26 March. International investigators say it was sunk by a North Korean torpedo.

Pyongyang denies responsibility for the incident, which happened near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border.

Following the sinking, North Korea suspended all contact with its southern neighbour, in response to Seoul's trade suspension.

A statement from the UN Security Council, released on Friday, praised South Korean "restraint" over the incident.

But it did not explicitly condemn North Korea - in a move correspondents say was a means of securing Chinese support for the statement.