Cambodia has no plans to evacuate its citizens from South Korea, where tensions have risen recently over North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday.

“If we bring back all of our workers after hearing of a minor problem, will we be able to request South Korea take our workers next time?” Hun Sen asked during a speech on Diamond Island, according to a Facebook post by Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, who quoted the premier.

About 53,000 Cambodians work in South Korea, according to the Kingdom’s envoy there, Long Dimanche, and Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour visited Seoul over the Khmer New Year holiday to reassure migrants that the government was monitoring the situation and had a “mechanism” to ensure their safety in the event of any conflict.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula spiked last week as the secretive North Korean regime prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and reports suggested his grandson and current leader Kim Jong-un would conduct another nuclear test.

No such test occurred, though North Korea did attempt to launch a ballistic missile, which exploded prematurely.

Contacted yesterday, Sour said he could not reveal the plans to aid workers, but added the government “strongly believed” that “peace would prevail on the Korean Peninsula”.