The government has been negotiating with Egypt Airlines to charter a flight to bring South Koreans out of Libya and the two sides are close to a deal, a foreign ministry official said. If the deal is done, an Egypt Airlines flight will be sent to Tripoli to take South Koreans back to Cairo as early as Thursday, he said.

Currently, about 1,400 South Koreans are believed to be staying in Libya -- about 1,050 of them in and around Tripoli and some 340 others in and around the eastern port city of Benghazi. 

A charter flight will be used to evacuate those near Tripoli, and the government is advising those near Benghazi to move to nearby Egypt by land because it is too risky to travel from Benghazi to Tripoli. Tripoli is surrounded by anti-government protesters while Benghazi has already fallen into the hands of
protesters, officials said.

Egypt has set up a border camp and is accepting people crossing from Libya, officials said.

Hundreds of South Koreans now hope to exit Libya and the number is expected to rise, the official said. The Egypt Airlines charter flight will be an Airbus 330 that can carry up to 260 passengers, he said. An additional flight will be sent if needed, he said.   

The official said that 45 South Korean and some 1,600 Bangladesh workers at a construction site near Benghazi had told officials that they would leave for nearby Egypt by land after day breaks on Wednesday. However, the government has since lost contact with them, he said.

"The communication situation there is very bad. I believe they've reached" Egypt, he said.

The official added that the government is also considering other evacuation options, such as sending a ferry to the port city of Benghazi, and sending a Korean Airlines flight to Tripoli in case Egypt Airlines changes its mind and refuses to charter a flight.

South Korean ambassador to Libya Jo Dae-sik, who had been in Seoul for an annual conference of diplomatic mission chiefs, left for Libya on Tuesday to oversee safety measures. The envoy is expected to arrive later Wednesday in Tunisia, from which he plans to use an overland route to Libya.

Amid the turmoil, rioters attacked an additional four South Korean-run construction sites in Libya and vehicles were stolen from three of the four sites, though there were no casualties, another ministry official said.

The raids were the latest in a series of attacks on Korean-run construction sites in Libya amid fanning anti-government protests. The attacks fueled concern about the safety of South Koreans staying in the country, most of them construction firm workers.

The latest wave of raids on Korean construction sites began last Friday when hundreds of Libyans entered a site in Derna in eastern Libya and set fire to buildings. Officials said anti-government protests appear to have fueled the rioting, which is believed to have started over discontent with the government's
housing policy. (Yonhap News)