North Korea has ordered its citizens in Libya not to return home in an apparent bid to block news of civil uprisings in the Arab World from reaching the isolated communist state, a report said Sunday.
Pyongyang, in a message sent to its embassy in Libya, told some 200 North Korean workers not to return and to follow local authorities' advice, Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.
"(The North) did so because it was afraid the news of Libya's civil unrest would spread within North Korea," said the source quoted by Yonhap.
The impoverished communist state sent hundreds of workers including doctors, nurses and construction labourers to oil-rich nations including Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to earn much-needed foreign cash, Yonhap said.