North Korea enquires if embassies are considering evacuation
The British Foreign Office is “considering next steps” after the North Korean regime asked overseas missions if they were considering evacuating amid continued diplomatic tensions.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the Pyongyang regime had responsibilities to protect embassies under international conventions and claimed the latest move was “part of their continuing rhetoric” that the United States poses a threat.
The North Korean administration has asked Russia to consider the possibility of evacuating staff from its embassy in Pyongyang due to the crisis.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has responsibilities under the Vienna convention to protect diplomatic missions, and we believe they have taken this step as part of their continuing rhetoric that the US poses a threat to them.
“We are considering next steps, including a change to our travel advice.”
The latest developments follow David Cameron's warning yesterday that Kim Jong Un's regime claimed to have weapons which could threaten the UK.
“North Korea does now have missile technology that is able to reach, as they put it, the whole of the United States,” he said.
“If they are able to reach the whole of the United States they can reach Europe too, they can reach us too. That is a real concern.”
The latest crisis in relations on the Korean peninsula follows anger in Pyongyang about sanctions against its nuclear programme and joint military drills involving US and South Korean forces.
The North’s military warned yesterday that it had been authorised to attack the US and South Korea’s defence minister claimed its neighbour had moved a missile with “considerable range” to the east coast, potentially able to hit targets in the South or Japan.
South Korea has reportedly deployed two warships with missile-defence systems in response.
