Increases alert after North Korea asks South foreigners to leave the country

Kim Jong un

North Korea frightened again his neighbor with the threat of a “thermonuclear war” on the Korean peninsula and advised foreigners living in South Korea to consider an prompt exit from the country, warning them that they run a personal risk in the event that outbreak of armed conflict.

“The Korean peninsula is headed to a thermonuclear war,” said the North Korean Committee for Peace in Asia-Pacific in a statement. “In case there is a war, we do not want foreigners living in South Korea get injured,” he added and recommending to “all international organizations, businesses and tourists to prepare for evacuation measures.”

Meanwhile, the head of Asia-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said yesterday that the United States would only intercept a North Korean missile if it is a threat to Washington and its allies.

Following these claims, and at the insistence of North Korea to foreigners and diplomats to evacuate the South, the United States and its ally South Korea raised the alert level on Wednesday to the “existential threat” to North Korea as it would represent the possibility of carrying out one or more tests missile approaching the anniversary of the founding father of the country, on April 15.

U.S. and South Korean forces raised their alert level from 3 to 2, level 1 stands for war. Level 4 represents peacetime, but with an “existential threat,” said a military spokesman of the Yonhap agency.