SEOUL – Foreigners in South Korea were left both concerned and confused by a semi-official statement from North Korea yesterday that warned non-Koreans based in the South that they should prepare to evacuate the country in the event of an inter-Korean war.

The release of the statement, attributed to a relatively unknown North Korean organization but carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), was seen as the latest in a long series of increasingly aggressive threats from Pyongyang, following the imposing of UN sanctions in February, and the beginning of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises last month.