South Korea will send two chartered ships to strife-torn Libya to bring home citizens and foreign workers at South Korean construction firms there, an official said Tuesday.

The ships chartered from Greece can each carry up to 1,800 passengers, a Transportation Ministry official said.

“We have prepared ships capable of evacuating a far larger number of people than before,” the official said without elaborating. It was not known when the vessels would arrive.

Seoul has already brought home hundreds of its citizens via charter flights and a Turkish army vessel amid escalating violence in the country.

About 400 South Koreans are still in the North African nation, the ministry said. It was not clear whether they all want to leave.

The South‘s destroyer Choi Young has been withdrawn from an anti-piracy patrol off Somalia and is sailing toward Libya to help with the evacuation if necessary.

It remains uncertain whether the warship will be allowed to enter Libyan waters, Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified official as saying. 

(AFP)