London/Moscow: North Korea has said it cannot assure the safety of embassies in Pyongyang after April 10, and has urged Britain, Russia and other European nations to evacuate diplomatic staff amid soaring nuclear tensions.

Countries across Europe on Friday reported receiving a letter suggesting they pull out of Pyongyang, as an increasingly bellicose North Korea moved two mid-range missiles on mobile launchers and hid them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or US Pacific bases,

“Their communication said that from April 10, the North Korean government would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organisations in the country in the event of conflict,” a spokeswoman for Britain’s Foreign Office said. “Our understanding is that the North Koreans were asking whether embassies are intending to leave, rather than advising them to leave.”

Britain was considering its next steps, she said.

Russia, which has relatively close ties with North Korea, also received the missive. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is ‘‘alarmed’’ and was in close contact with the US, China, Japan and South Korea over the proposal to empty diplomatic missions, “The suggestion was made to all embassies in Pyongyang and we are trying to clarify the situation,” he said Uzbekistan.

In Sofia, a foreign ministry spokesman said North Korea has sent letters to Bulgaria and other EU countries telling them to consider pulling their diplomatic staff from Pyongyang for security reasons.

“Yes, we - along with other EU member states - have received such a letter signed by a deputy foreign minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dimitar Yaprakov told AFP.

He said all foreign ambassadors had been summoned by Pyongyang’s foreign ministry “telling them that it was ready to assist them if they wanted to evacuate their missions.”

“The chiefs of EU missions to Pyongyang are meeting tomorrow there to discuss a common position and common action,” he added.

President Barack Obama is leaving it to other US officials to respond publicly to North Korea’s hostile rhetoric, as his administration balances a display of military resolve against the risk that its actions will escalate tensions with President Kim Jong Un. The White House so far has kept American reaction below the presidential level, with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry taking the lead. Obama hasn’t commented in public on the crisis this week

“The suggestion was made to all embassies in Pyongyang and we are trying to clarify the situation,” Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying on a visit to Uzbekistan.

“We are in close contact with our Chinese partners as well as the Americans”, and all participants in the frozen six-party talks process seeking peace on the peninsula, he added.

He said there were “many factors” that needed clarification.