Ex-royal Navy head gives warning over North Korea nuclear tensions

The Government should advise Britons in the Korean peninsula to leave if the tensions over Kim Jong Un’s nuclear programme continue to ratchet up, a former head of the Royal Navy has warned.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead said there was a “real risk” the stand-off between North Korea and the United States could escalate into a conflict, resulting in an exchange of nuclear weapons.

He said advising UK citizens to leave the peninsula and nearby Japan would send a message to the international community that they needed to act to prevent a lurch into 0 Lord West sees ‘real risk’ of stand-off leading to conflict all-out war. Lord West said: “When you start giving certain advice to your nationals, people start taking notice and maybe China and others will say, ‘Goodness me, this is really said.

“I would set out a certain number of parameters, that if in terms of tension if things change, and say, ‘You should now think about getting out and about other people you should think about not going there’.”

The current Foreign Office travel advice for both South and North Korea notes that tensions “remain high” but does not advise Britons to leave.

Lord West said he feared chances of a conflict in the region were higher than at any time since the end of the Korean War in 1952.

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