North Korea broke off diplomatic relations with Malaysia after the country extradited a North Korean citizen to the United States on Wednesday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued through its official news agency on Friday (March 19). In the statement, reported by KCNA, the North Korean Foreign Ministry also warned that the U.S. would “pay the price”.
The North Korean statement said that on March 17 Malaysian authorities “committed an unforgivable crime … by forcibly deporting innocent (North Korean) citizens to the United States. The statement noted that the DPRK Foreign Ministry “announced the full termination of diplomatic relations with Malaysia” and slammed Malaysia for what it called “hostile acts” against the DPRK “for yielding to U.S. pressure. The statement described the unnamed man as a “hostile act” against North Korea.
The statement described the unnamed individual as someone “legally engaged in foreign trade activities in Singapore” and insisted that the accusation that he was “involved in illegal money laundering … is false.
In early March, Malaysia’s Supreme Court reportedly ruled that a North Korean man named Mun Chol Myong could be extradited to the United States. Mun Chol Myong, who has lived in Malaysia with his Family for 10 years, was arrested in 2019 after the U.S. requested his extradition. The U.S. accused him of laundering money through front companies and issuing false documents to support illegal shipments to North Korea.
In court, Moon denied the FBI’s allegations that he was the head of a criminal syndicate involved in supplying embargoed goods to North Korea and laundering money through companies. He faces four counts of money laundering and two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which his attorneys claim are largely related to his work in Singapore.
Moon opposes the extradition request, arguing that there are political motives behind the move.
The Central News Agency reports that it is uncertain what contraband Moon is accused of providing, but there have been instances in the past when some Singaporean businesses would gift luxury items such as good wine and watches to North Korea. Countries such as the United Nations and the United States have imposed sweeping sanctions on North Korea because of its weapons development program, and some Luxury goods are banned from being exported to North Korea as part of the sanctions.
So far, Malaysia has been one of North Korea’s few allies. But after Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam was assassinated by agents at Kuala Lumpur airport four years ago, relations between the two countries quickly deteriorated and they expelled each other’s ambassadors, despite North Korea’s denial of responsibility for the incident. But relations had been warming recently, and the Malaysian embassy in Pyongyang opened just a few months ago.
The important international backdrop to this break in diplomatic relations between North Korea and Malaysia is that U.S. Secretary of State John Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have recently been touring Asian allies, including South Korea, Japan and India, to strengthen Washington’s ties with traditional partners in the region, with the primary goal of countering the growing and dangerous influence of China and North Korea.
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