MOSCOW – North Korea asked Russia and other states to consider evacuating their diplomats from the capital as tensions mount with its southern neighbor, warning that embassies can’t be protected in the event of a conflict.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry official met Russian Ambassador Alexander Timonin Friday to deliver the message, said Denis Samsonov, a spokesman for the embassy in Pyongyang. The British Embassy was told by the Asian nation’s government Friday that it won’t be able to guarantee the safety of foreign missions starting April 10 if a conflict flares up, the Foreign Office in London said in an emailed statement.
Russia is “alarmed” by the tensions on the Korean peninsula and is in “close contact” with the United States, China, Japan and South Korea over the proposal to empty diplomatic missions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to a statement on the ministry’s website. Russia also sought clarification from the government in Pyongyang, he said.
A crisis is escalating after the communist nation threatened to wage nuclear war on the U.S. and South Korea. Kim Jong Un’s regime warned this week that “the moment of explosion is approaching soon” and said it’s poised to conduct a “smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike.” North Korea also has moved a missile to its eastern coast rocket-launch site, possibly for test-firing, according to South Korea’s defense minister.