Britain closes embassy in North Korea, evacuates diplomats

Students have their temperature checked as a precaution against the new coronavirus as their university reopened following vacation at the Kim Chaek University of Technology in Pyongyang, North Kore on April 22 ,2020. Early in the outbreak Pyongyang imposed tight quarantine restrictions on all resident foreigners. - AP

SEOUL (AFP): Britain has shuttered its embassy in North Korea and all its diplomats have left the country, its ambassador said Thursday (May 28) as Pyongyang maintains strict entry controls to try to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.

The North has closed its borders and insists it has not had a single case of the virus that emerged in neighbouring China late last year and has since swept the world.