North Korea continued to stoke already tense international relations Tuesday, warning foreigners staying in the South to evacuate soon before its impending nuclear war with Seoul begins.
In an address through state-run media outlet KCNA, North Korea advised foreigners and tourists living in the South to leave the country or seek shelter.
"We do not wish harm on foreigners in South Korea should there be a war," said KCNA, quoting an official from a North Korean organization conspicuously named Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.
KCNA did not elaborate beyond its cryptic warning, though, experts on the region note that there are currently no clear indications North Korea is building up its military forces at the border with the South.
Analysts pointed out that this isn't the first time Pyongyang has made such an ominous proclamation to South Korea, saying this most recent provocation is likely meant to pressure Seoul into providing aid.
Pyongyang has made a point in recent months of displaying its military brawn through open threats aimed at the U.S. and South, provocative military exercises aimed at South Korean and U.S. targets, and more. North Korea has continued to ratchet up its aggressive rhetoric on a near-daily basis ever since its third nuclear test launch in February.
As North Korea loaded two of the country's mobile missile launchers and positioned them to fire off the east coast Thursday, Pyonyang warned several foreign embassies to evacuate Pyongyang within the next five days.
Citing military sources in Seoul, South Korea's Yonhap news agency announced that the North had placed two Musudan missiles in mobile launchers in position to fire on the South, Japan, and potentially the US-protected territory of Guam. The missiles are thought to have a range of at least 1,875 miles.
While North Korea moved its rockets into position "within the last few days," the nation simultaneously cautioned foreign diplomats staying in Pyongyang to leave the country soon, saying that if they stayed after April 10, the North could not guarantee their safety.
After severing another hotline earlier in the month, North Korea cut yet another link between itself and the South, ceasing operations at Kaesong Wednesday, blocking hundreds of workers from the South from entering factories at the border. A joint industrial complex run by the North and South together, the complex was the last symbolic remnant of cooperation between the two Koreas.
North Korea told the U.S. Wednesday that its military had been instructed to attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weaponry. Shortly after the North's warning, South Korea notified the U.S. that Pyongyang had moved a missile in "considerable range" to its east coast. The insular nation also officially cut off a hotline with Seoul Wednesday at the shared Kaesong industrial complex, blocking hundreds of workers from the South from entering factories at the border.
Pyongyang cautioned the United Nations that it was only a matter of time before violence erupted, saying the tensions had developed into a "simmering nuclear war."
Experts on the region say North Korea's nearly-endless flood of aggressive actions is meant to pressure the U.S. into "disarmament-for-aid" discussions and strengthen its people's devotion to new leader Kim Jong Un by showing he is a powerful military commander. Some also note that it's likely the majority of Pyongyang's threats are merely attempts to feel out, or intimidate South Korea's recently elected - and thus untested - president, and for Kim Jong Un - also a fairly new leader - to prove his mettle to an inert national audience.