North Korea: “The situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a thermo-nuclear war”

A statement attributed to North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee on Tuesday warned the situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a nuclear war.

The statement said: “The situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a thermo-nuclear war.

“In the event of war, we don’t want foreigners living in South Korea to get hurt.”

North Korea’s statement urged “all foreign organizations, companies and tourists to work out measures for evacuation”.

Last Friday, Pyongyang warned it would not be able to guarantee the safety of embassy staff in the event of a war.

No foreign embassies immediately announced plans to evacuate, and the UK and Russian embassies have said they have no plans to shut their embassies.

The US, which has also been threatened by Pyongyang, has said there were no imminent signs of threats to American citizens.

Tuesday’s warning from Pyongyang to foreigners in South Korea came amid growing concern that North Korea may be about to launch a missile test.

Japan has deployed defensive anti-missile batteries at three locations in Tokyo, to protect the capital’s 30 million residents.

US-made Patriot anti-missile systems have been deployed at the defense ministry and at two other military bases.