KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – North Korean diplomats have evacuated their embassy in Malaysia and are ready to leave the country on Sunday, after the two nations severed diplomatic relations over the extradition of a North Korean criminal suspect to the United State.
The North Korean flag and embassy directions were removed from the premises in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. Two buses transported the diplomats and their families to the airport, where they are seen for a flight to Shanghai.
Ties between North Korea and Malaysia have been virtually frozen since the 2017 assassination of the alienated half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Two days after Kuala Lumpur extradited a North Korean man to the US to face charges of money laundering, an angry North Korea announced on Friday that it was ending ties with Malaysia. Malaysia denounced the decision and gave North Korean diplomats 48 hours to leave.
Kim Yu Song, the chargé d’affaires and councilor in Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysia had committed an “unforgivable crime.” and suffocated “his land.
“The Malaysian government has finally handed over our citizenship to the United States, destroying the foundations of bilateral relations on the basis of sovereignty,” he said in a brief statement outside the embassy before leaving for the airport.
North Korea called the money laundering charges an “absurd fabrication and (a) conspiracy” orchestrated by the US and warned that Washington would pay a due price. ‘
Some experts believe that cutting ties with Malaysia was North Korea’s way of showing anger with President Joe Biden’s government, without jeopardizing the eventual return to nuclear talks with Washington.
North Korea has insisted it will not enter into talks with Washington unless it views Pyongyang’s policies as ‘hostile’. But experts say North Korea will eventually try to return to diplomacy to find ways to ease sanctions and revive its morbid economy.
Malaysia defended its attempt to extradite Mun Chol Myong, saying it was only carried out after all legal proceedings had been exhausted. A Supreme Court has ruled that Mun can be extradited after dismissing his appeal on the grounds that the U.S. charges are politically motivated.
Mun, who lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019, has denied US allegations that he was involved in supplying luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions while in the city-state. worked. He denied money laundering by front companies and issued fraudulent documents to support illegal shipments to his country.
North Korea has long used Malaysia as a major economic hub where it handles trade, labor exports and some illegal enterprises in Southeast Asia, but their relations suffered major setbacks due to the death of Kim Jong Nam in 2017.
Two women – one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese – are accused of conspiring with four North Koreans to kill Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with the VX nerve agent. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia the day Kim died. The two women were later released.
Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kim’s death, but prosecutors have made it clear throughout the trial that they suspect a connection to North Korea.
North Korea denied that the victim was Kim Jong Nam and denied that it had any role in the man’s death. Former North Korean viewers believe Kim Jong Un ordered his brother ‘