U.N. alarmed by N.Korea crisis, but aid staff still working

              
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is deeply alarmed at the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, though United Nations humanitarian workers remain active across North Korea for the time being, a spokesman said on Friday.     
   
"U.N. staff in the DPRK (North Korea) remain engaged in their humanitarian and developmental work throughout the country," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a conference broadcast in New York. "The secretary-general remains deeply concerned about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula."             
In this regard, North Korea has told Britain it cannot guarantee the safety of diplomats after April 10 in the event of a conflict, the British foreign ministry said.         

"The British Embassy in Pyongyang received a communication from the North Korean government this morning saying that the North Korean government would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the country in the event of conflict from April 10th," the Foreign Office said in a statement.          

In this context, Britain said North Korea had asked it if it intended to evacuate its embassy in Pyongyang because of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but said it regarded the query as part of an anti-U.S. information campaign.             

"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," Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement.              

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow was in close contact with the United States, China, South Korea and Japan over a North Korean request to consider the possibility of evacuating embassies, Russian news agencies reported.        
   
"The proposal was made to the embassies in Pyongyang, and we are trying to clarify the situation," Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying during a visit to Uzbekistan. He was quoted as saying: "We are in close contact with our Chinese partners as well as the Americans, the South Koreans and the Japanese."        

Earlier, North Korea has asked Russia to consider the possibility of evacuating staff from its embassy in Pyongyang due to increasing tension on the Korean Peninsula, a spokesman for the Russian embassy said by phone from Pyongyang.                                    

The spokesman, Denis Samsonov, said that Russia was examining the request but was not planning to evacuate at this stage and that there were no outward signs of tension in the North Korean capital.                                         

This comes after South Korea's unification minister said that his country is willing to pull out workers from the Kaesong industrial complex jointly run with North Korea if it becomes dangerous for the workers, amid growing tension on the Korean peninsula.                                             

"When the situation requires us to do so, we are willing to pull out South Korean workers to ensure their safety," unification minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told foreign media.   

Increasingly strident rhetoric from the North has reached new heights, with South Korea and its ally the United States beefing up defenses in and around the peninsula after the North  denied entry to the complex this week for hundreds of South Korean workers. The facility is the last shared link between the North and South.          


REUTERS