N Korea cautions embassies over safety

North Korea warned foreign embassies in Pyongyang that it was unable to guarantee their safety after Apr 10 and they should consider evacuating their missions amid soaring nuclear tensions.

European countries with embassies in Pyongyang, such as Britain and Russia, reported receiving a warning advisory, as an increasingly bellicose North Korea moved two mid-range missiles to its east coast.

“Their communication said that from Apr 10, the North Korean government would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organisations in the country in the event of conflict,” a spokeswoman for Britain’s foreign office said.

“Our understanding is that the North Koreans were asking whether embassies are intending to leave, rather than advising them to leave.”

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Moscow, which has relatively close ties with Pyong-yang, was consulting with China over the warning, as well as the US and other members of the stalled six-party talks on North Korea.

There were “many factors” that needed clarification, Lavrov said.

Bulgaria’s foreign ministry said the chief of all EU missions in Pyongyang had agreed to meet today to discuss a common position.

North Korea, incensed by UN sanctions and South Korea-US military drills, has issued a series of apocalyptic threats of nuclear war in recent weeks, and there has been growing international concern that the situation might spiral out of control.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon described the daily threats from Pyongyang as “really alarming and troubling” and Germany summoned the North Korean ambassador to convey Berlin’s “serious concern”.

Philippine foreign secretary Albert del Rosario said he was flying to Seoul and would “fully vet” contingency plans for ensuring the safety of 43,000 Filipino workers in South Korea.

The spike in tensions came as Yonhap news agency, citing a top South Korean government official, said North Korea had loaded two mid-range Musudan missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities near its east coast.

“The North is apparently intent on firing the missiles without prior warning,” the official said.

A navy official told Yonhap that two South Korean Aegis destroyers with advance radar systems had been deployed to track any missile launch.

The Musudan has never been tested, but is believed to have a range of around 3,000km which could be pushed to 4,000km with a light payload.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the barrage of rhetoric flying out of Pyongyang fitted a “regrettable but familiar” pattern of North Korean behaviour.

UN to stay or go?

- The UN said yesterday that its staff are continuing to work in North Korea while secretary-general Ban Ki-moon studies a message from North Korea saying the world body should consider evacuating UN personnel.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said a UN representative joined diplomats at a meeting in Pyongyang where the North’s foreign ministry delivered the message. He said the secretary-general was considering the message.

He said UN staff “remain engaged in their humanitarian and developmental work in the country”.