North Korea’s threats prompt South Korea to increase diplomatic alert levels

In response to information suggesting North Korea would try to hurt its officials, South Korea’s foreign ministry on Thursday increased the terrorism alert level for five of its diplomatic missions in the area.

The ministry released a statement listing the five locations as Seoul’s consulates in Vladivostok, Russia, and Shenyang, China, as well as its embassies in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

The foreign ministry announced that South Korea’s terrorism warning level was increased from Attention to warning, the second highest of the country’s four classifications that denotes a high likelihood of an attack.

In a different development, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea declared that it had “many indications that North Korea is preparing to carry out terrorist attacks against our diplomatic officers and citizens,” though it did not specify the specifics of the threats.

According to the NIS, Pyongyang has sent agents to such nations in order to increase monitoring of the South Korean missions.

Requests for comment over the phone went unanswered by the North Korean embassy in London.

The government-run media in the North has dismissed accusations of terrorism against it as an attempt by the United States to undermine Washington’s opponents.

The National Counter Terrorism Center of South Korea met on Thursday to talk about ways to safeguard diplomatic posts and the staff that work there, according to a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs.

North Korea was suspected of carrying out multiple assaults on civilian targets during the Cold War, including bombings of a South Korean airliner in the 1980s and a Seoul airport.

In 2017, the United States re-listed North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, alleging the use of VX nerve agent at an airport in Malaysia to kill Kim Jong Nam, the elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.