Koreans evacuate Iran by land to Turkmenistan
A group of South Koreans and their Iranian family members evacuated Iran and arrived in Turkmenistan on Wednesday amid ongoing trading air strikes between Iran and Israel, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
This marked the first time South Korean nationals have been evacuated from Iran since the Israel-Iran conflict was triggered by Israel's surprise attack on Iran on June 13.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it organized the evacuation, with the group departing Tehran on Tuesday morning and traveling by land to Turkmenistan, which borders Iran to the east, through a bus chartered by the South Korean government.
The group arrived at the Iran-Turkmenistan border checkpoint on Wednesday, and crossed into Turkmenistan on Wednesday night, the sixth day of the Israel-Iran conflict, after a journey of approximately 30 hours.
The group consisted of 18 South Korean nationals and 2 Iranian family members.
The overland journey spans approximately 1,200 kilometers and takes about 16 hours of non-stop driving. A backup bus also traveled along the route as a precaution.
"The government's evacuation assistance was swiftly carried out as a preemptive measure to protect overseas nationals, amid a situation in which departure from Iran had become difficult due to the closure of Iranian airspace amid ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Iran, leaving no available means of transportation such as commercial flights," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry said it has dispatched a rapid response team to Turkmenistan to provide consular assistance, helping South Korean nationals with entry procedures, accommodation, and flight arrangements with the South Korean Embassy in Ashgabat.
The Foreign Ministry chose Turkmenistan as the evacuation destination after considering the safety of nationals traveling out of Iran, the closure of Iranian airspace, road traffic conditions, and the location of the South Korean Embassy in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, according to the ministry.
The embassy is located about an hour's drive from the Iran-Turkmenistan border, allowing for timely consular assistance.
Regarding the rationale behind the decision to carry out the first evacuation on Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry official, on condition of anonymity, cited an assessment of 'the battlefield situation, the demand for evacuating our nationals, road conditions and the status of the airspace.'
'The most decisive factor was the need to conduct the evacuation as swiftly as possible," the official added.
According to the Foreign Ministry, about 90 South Koreans remained in Iran following Tuesday's evacuation.
On Tuesday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry raised its travel advisory for both Iran and Israel to Level 3 — which recommends departure — except for certain areas in Israel that remain under a Level 4 travel ban. The ministry urged its nationals to leave both countries immediately in response to the ongoing conflict.
On Monday, 23 South Korean nationals were evacuated from Israel via land, the first such evacuation since the conflict began, in an effort led by the Korean community in Israel to reach Jordan. Following the initial evacuation, about 500 South Koreans remain in Israel.
Tensions in the Middle East persist as US President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether the US will join Israel's strikes against Iran.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected US calls for surrender Wednesday and warned that any US military involvement would cause 'irreparable damage to them.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
4 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Israel hits nuclear sites, Iran strikes hospital as war escalates
TEL AVIV/DUBAI -- Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital overnight, as the week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an off-ramp. Following the strike which damaged the Soroka hospital in Israel's southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran's "tyrants" would pay the "full price". His Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the "Ayatollah regime". Netanyahu has said that Israel's military attacks could result in the toppling of Iran's leaders, and Israel would do whatever is necessary to remove the "existential threat" posed by Tehran. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has kept the world guessing about whether Israel's superpower ally would join it in airstrikes. Israel said on Thursday it had struck Iran's Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. A military spokesperson initially said it had also hit Bushehr, site of Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant, but a spokesperson later said this was a mistake to have said this. Earlier, Israel said it had hit another nuclear site near Arak overnight, where Iran was building a heavy-water reactor. Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it. On Wednesday he said nobody knows what he will do. A day earlier he mused on social media about killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then demanded Iran's unconditional surrender. A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel. REACTOR TARGETED Earlier, the Israeli military said it targeted the Khondab nuclear site near Iran's central city Arak overnight, including a partially-built heavy-water research reactor. Heavy-water reactors produce plutonium, which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said it had information that the heavy-water research reactor had been hit, but did not contain radioactive material. It had no information that a separate plant there which makes heavy water had been hit. Israel, which has the most advanced military in the Middle East, has been fighting on several fronts since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack triggered the Gaza war. It has severely weakened Iran's regional allies, the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah, and bombed Yemen's Houthis. The extent of the damage inside Iran from the week-old bombing campaign has become far more difficult to assess in recent days, with the authorities apparently seeking to prevent panic by limiting information. Iran has stopped giving updates on the death toll, and state media have ceased showing widespread images of destruction. The internet has been almost completely shut down. The public has been banned from filming, with the authorities citing a risk of espionage. Arash, 33, a government employee in Tehran, said a building next to his home in Tehran's Shahrak-e Gharb neighbourhood had been destroyed in the strikes. "I saw at least three dead children and two women in that building. Is this how Netanyahu plans to 'liberate' Iranians? Stay away from our country," he told Reuters by telephone. Israel has issued evacuation orders for whole sections of Tehran, a city of 10 million. Thousands of residents have fled, jamming the highways out. Samira, 11, had moved in with her grandparents in the northwestern city of Urmia, her family having fled Tehran when a shopping centre near their house was struck. She said she hasn't been able to sleep at night. "I'm afraid Israel will hit our home and my mom will die. I'm too scared. I just want to go home,' she said by phone. Inside Israel, Iran's retaliatory missile strikes over the past week have been the first time in decades of shadow war that a significant number of Iranian projectiles have pierced defences and killed Israelis in their homes. The director general of the Israeli hospital that was damaged in Beersheba, Shlomi Kodesh, told reporters at the site that a missile strike had destroyed several wards and injured 40 people, mostly staff and patients. "We're trying to minimize the number of people at Soroka. At the moment, we don't know if buildings may collapse or if wards might collapse," he said. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they were targeting Israeli military and intelligence headquarters located near the hospital. An Israeli military official denied there were military targets nearby and said the attack on a hospital was deliberate. Missiles also hit a residential building in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. "It's very scary," said Yaniv, 34, who lives nearby. He said he heard a deafening explosion when the missile hit, shaking his apartment tower.
Korea Herald
7 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Koreans evacuate Iran via Turkmen border
A group of South Koreans and their Iranian family members evacuated Iran and arrived in Turkmenistan on Wednesday amid ongoing trading air strikes between Iran and Israel, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Thursday. This marked the first time South Korean nationals have been evacuated from Iran since the Israel-Iran conflict was triggered by Israel's surprise attack on Iran on June 13. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it organized the evacuation, with the group departing Tehran on Tuesday morning and traveling by land to Turkmenistan, which borders Iran to the east, through a bus chartered by the South Korean government. The group arrived at the Iran-Turkmenistan border checkpoint on Wednesday, and crossed into Turkmenistan on Wednesday night, the sixth day of the Israel-Iran conflict, after a journey of approximately 30 hours. The group consisted of 18 South Korean nationals and 2 Iranian family members. The overland journey spans approximately 1,200 kilometers and takes about 16 hours of non-stop driving. A backup bus also traveled along the route as a precaution. "The government's evacuation assistance was swiftly carried out as a preemptive measure to protect overseas nationals, amid a situation in which departure from Iran had become difficult due to the closure of Iranian airspace amid ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Iran, leaving no available means of transportation such as commercial flights," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The Foreign Ministry said it has dispatched a rapid response team to Turkmenistan to provide consular assistance, helping South Korean nationals with entry procedures, accommodation, and flight arrangements with the South Korean Embassy in Ashgabat. The Foreign Ministry chose Turkmenistan as the evacuation destination after considering the safety of nationals traveling out of Iran, the closure of Iranian airspace, road traffic conditions, and the location of the South Korean Embassy in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, according to the ministry. The embassy is located about an hour's drive from the Iran-Turkmenistan border, allowing for timely consular assistance. Regarding the rationale behind the decision to carry out the first evacuation on Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry official, on condition of anonymity, cited an assessment of 'the battlefield situation, the demand for evacuating our nationals, road conditions and the status of the airspace.' 'The most decisive factor was the need to conduct the evacuation as swiftly as possible," the official added. According to the Foreign Ministry, about 90 South Koreans remained in Iran following Tuesday's evacuation. On Tuesday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry raised its travel advisory for both Iran and Israel to Level 3 — which recommends departure — except for certain areas in Israel that remain under a Level 4 travel ban. The ministry urged its nationals to leave both countries immediately in response to the ongoing conflict. On Monday, 23 South Korean nationals were evacuated from Israel via land, the first such evacuation since the conflict began, in an effort led by the Korean community in Israel to reach Jordan. Following the initial evacuation, about 500 South Koreans remain in Israel. Tensions in the Middle East persist as US President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether the US will join Israel's strikes against Iran. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected US calls for surrender Wednesday and warned that any US military involvement would cause 'irreparable damage to them.'
Korea Herald
8 hours ago
- Korea Herald
NK fires multiple rocket launcher shells
North Korea fired some 10 artillery shells from its multiple rocket launchers in the morning, South Korea's military said Thursday. 'Our military detected 10 artillery shells from multiple rocket launcher systems that were fired from the Sunan area in North Korea, near Pyongyang, towards the northwest at around 10 a.m.,' the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The Yellow Sea lies northwest of Sunan. The JCS said it had detected signs of the launches in advance and was prepared to respond. South Korean and US intelligence authorities are conducting an analysis of the latest weapon test, the JCS said. While the JCS usually immediately alerts the press about North Korea's test-firing of missiles, it said the delay in Thursday's announcement was due to a lack of urgency. 'North Korea constantly fires artillery shells from multiple rocket launchers, and Thursday's launch was not a ballistic missile.' While the JCS and the North both have yet to announce whether the artillery shells fired Thursday were from 240 mm or 600 mm multiple rocket launchers, observers projected it to be the former. North Korea announced last year that it would deploy an upgraded 240 mm multiple rocket launcher to its military starting that year. The weapon system is known to target the South's broader capital area. Thursday's test-firing closely followed a trilateral aerial exercise jointly conducted by South Korea, the US and Japan on Wednesday, to strengthen security cooperation. It marked the first of such exercises to take place after the launch of the Lee Jae Myung administration.
