UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed serious concern that the problem on the Korean peninsula could become “uncontrollable” as North Korea has warned foreigners to leave South Korea.

“The situation on the Korean peninsula is heading for a thermo-nuclear war,” a statement attributed to North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee read. “In the event of war, we don’t want foreigners living in South Korea to get hurt.”

Ki-Moon responded to the statement by again asking North Korea to tone down its rhetoric and to re-open a joint North-South Korea industrial complex that had been shut down as North Korean workers failed to arrive for work the last few days.

“If any small incident is caused by miscalculation or misjudgement, it may create an uncontrollable situation,” Ki-Moon said.

Japan has deployed anti-missile batteries to location around Tokyo to protect their capital in the event North Korea launches missiles in the region.