Britain has shuttered its embassy in North Korea and all its diplomats have left the country, its ambassador said Thursday as Pyongyang maintains strict entry controls to try to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.

The North has closed its borders and insists it has not had a single case of the virus that emerged in neighbouring China late last year and has since swept the world.

The closure is a temporary move and came because Pyongyang's "restrictions on entry to the country have made it impossible to rotate our staff and sustain the operation of the Embassy", a Foreign Office spokesperson said.