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South Korea’s foreign ministry raised its terrorism alert level for five diplomatic posts on Thursday. The reason is fears that North Korea (DPRK) could try to harm the representatives of the institutions in question, warns the Reuters agency.
The five locations include Seoul’s embassies in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, and consulates in Russia’s Vladivostok and China’s Shenzhen, the ministry said in a statement. The terrorism alert level is currently at the second highest level out of four. That means the likelihood of an attack is high, South Korea’s foreign ministry said.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said separately that it had “numerous indications that North Korea is preparing terrorist attacks against diplomatic personnel and citizens”. However, she added that the DPRK sent its agents to the aforementioned countries to monitor South Korean missions. She did not further specify the nature of the threats.
The foreign ministry statement also said South Korea’s National Counter-Terrorism Center met on Thursday to discuss measures to protect diplomatic posts and the officials who work there. North Korea’s state-controlled media has criticized allegations of terrorism against North Korea as a US effort to discredit Washington’s opponents.
