#breaking North Korea urges foreign diplomats to leave on Friday. Dozens of foreign diplomats quarantined in Pyongyang, North Korea are planning to take an evacuation flight this Friday, a source inside the country tells me.
The source agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, given the extreme sensitivity of the current situation in North Korea: “We got a new note [on Saturday] urging missions again to leave and stating [the flight] is scheduled to leave on the 6th [of March],” the source says.
The source says North Korea’s state run airline Air Koryo will operate the flight to evacuate foreign diplomats from from Pyongyang to Vladivostok, Russia. “But as far as I understand this is not agreed yet with the Russians,” the source adds. Russian MOFA won’t confirm to CNN.
The German Embassy, French Cooperation Office, and Swiss Development Cooperation will close Pyongyang operations completely, the source says. Other countries with diplomatic missions in North Korea plan to scale down operations.
CNN previously reported foreign diplomats have been kept in complete isolation since early February, amid concerns about the potential spread of novel coronavirus inside North Korea. Diplomatic staff are not allowed to leave their compounds. All flights in & out of DPRK suspended
