Initial reports started rolling in four to five hours ago: The US and Japan were seeking a Saturday vote on santions against North Korea.

The LA Times reported that radiation gases had been found near North Korea and that the vote would go on. It was starting to look the the sanctions, which had been approved ‘in principle,’ were about to be approved.

Then, in the past hour, US plans have come a bit unwound: China and Russia have apparently rasied objections that may delay the vote.

Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s defense minister, raised this objection to the proposed sanctions:

Sanctions [by the UN Security Council] must not even hint on military action and must not be aimed against the North Korean people. Politico-diplomatic efforts must aim to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible.

Ivanov even went so far as to praise the strong state of Russian-Chinese relations, which have allowed them to work in concert toward a common goal.

US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, anticipating such a situation, made these comments on Friday night:

I’m still ready to go for a vote, and we’ll just have to see what the instructions are overnight, in particular from Moscow and China.

Bolton is prepared to vote despite the fact that a Pentagon spokeman announced, “Based upon the analysis, we can’t prove [Monday’s test] was a nuclear explosion, and we can’t say it wasn’t.” This statement is a slight reversal of earlier reports that the US had in fact detected radiation in the skies above North Korea and subsequent claims that the US had ‘confirmation’ that a nuclear weapon had been tested.