SEOUL: North Korea intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South on Tuesday, warning foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into a ‘merciless, sacred, retaliatory war’.
The North’s latest antagonistic message belied an atmosphere free of anxiety in the South Korean capital, where the city centre was bustling with traffic and offices operated normally.
Pyongyang has shown no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong army for war, indicating the threat could be partly intended to bolster Kim Jong-un, 30, the third in his family to lead the reclusive country.
None of the embassies in Seoul appeared to have issued any directives to their nationals after the warning and airlines reported no changes in their schedules. Schools catering to foreign pupils worked without interruption.
The warning, read out on North Korea’s state television in a bulletin that interrupted normal programming, was the latest threat in weeks of high tension following UN sanctions slapped on Pyongyang for its latest nuclear arms test.
It followed the North’s suspension of activity at the Kaesong joint industrial park just inside North Korea, all but closing down the last remnant of cooperation between the neighbours. North Korean workers failed to turn up on Tuesday.
North Korea had said South Korea was trying to turn the Kaesong commplex into a ‘hotbed of war’.
The warning to foreigners, reported by the KCNA news agency said once war broke out ‘it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory war to be waged by (North Korea).
‘It does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war,’ the agency quoted the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying.
‘The committee informs all foreign institutions and enterprises and foreigners, including tourists…that they are requested to take measures for shelter and evacuation in advance for their safety.’
Last week, North Korean authorities advised embassies in Pyongyang to consider pulling out in case of war, though none appeared to have taken any such action.
Speculation has grown that the North would launch some sort of provocative action this week — perhaps a missile launch or a fresh nuclear weapons test.
A government source in Seoul said a North Korean medium-range missile, reported to have been shunted to the east coast, had been tracked and was believed to be ready for launch.
‘Technically, they can launch it as early as tomorrow,’ the source said.
But a US embassy official in Seoul said a directive issued last week saying there was no imminent threat to Americans in South Korea remained valid. ‘Our workers are in all our offices today,’ he said. ‘We have not evacuated anyone.’
A Philippine foreign ministry spokesman quoted diplomats at its Seoul embassy as saying the situation ‘remains normal and calm’. Stocks, which had fallen 4 percent over the past four days, edged higher on Tuesday despite the warning to foreigners. The won currency moved little, dipping slightly after the North Korean statement.
Employers at the Kaesong complex faced uncertainty as the 53,000-strong North Korean workforce stayed away. A spokesman for textile company Taekwang Industrial and at least two other firms said production had stopped.
About 475 South Korean workers and factory managers remain in Kaesong, which generates $2 billion in trade for the impoverished North. The Seoul government said 77 would return on Tuesday.
North Korean workers at the park have appeared increasingly agitated in recent days, refusing to talk to their colleagues. Many Southerners connected with the park bedded down at budget hotels in a nearby South Korean town in the hope that an order would come from the North to re-open. (Reuters)