12 countries close embassies in North Korea due to shortage of essential goods and medicine

Only nine ambassadors and four charges d’affaires are representing their countries in North Korea now

• All foreign personnel of international humanitarian organizations have left North Korea
• The personnel of the majority of Embassies working here has been reduced to a minimum
• Not everyone can tolerate the unprecedentedly strict total restrictions, the sharpest shortage of essential goods

A dozen of countries have suspended the work of their diplomatic missions in North Korea and all foreign personnel of international humanitarian organizations have left the country due to the critical situation over the lack of essential goods and medicine.

Russian Embassy in Pyongyang wrote on its Facebook page that only nine ambassadors and four charges d’affaires are representing their countries in North Korea now, while “the personnel of the majority of Embassies working here has been reduced to a minimum.”

According to the statement, “locks have been put on the gates of the Embassies of the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and all foreign personnel of international humanitarian organizations have left.”

“Those leaving the Korean capital can be understood – not everyone can tolerate the unprecedentedly strict total restrictions, the sharpest shortage of essential goods, including medicine, the lack of possibility to solve health problems,” the Embassy said.

In its Facebook statement Thursday, Russia’s Embassy in Pyongyang published photos of what appear to be deserted foreign embassies in the North Korean capital, adding that fewer than 290 foreign nationals and only nine ambassadors remain in North Korea.