The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 19th to break off diplomatic relations with Malaysia, the embassy related personnel today at the request of the Malaysian government to evacuate; South Korean media pointed out that the reason for North Korea’s big move to break off diplomatic relations with Malaysia is to worry about the exposure of the pipeline to circumvent international sanctions in Southeast Asia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea released a statement through the state news agency “North Korea Central News Agency (KCNA)” on the 19th, announcing the severance of diplomatic relations with Malaysia on the grounds that Malaysia will extradite “innocent North Korean citizens” to the United States; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia on the same day In response, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry condemned Pyongyang’s decision as a violation of the spirit of mutual respect and asked the North Korean embassy staff in Malaysia to leave the country within 48 hours.
The South Korean media, citing local Malaysian media, reported that more than 30 embassy staff and Family members were evacuated from the embassy in a tour bus this afternoon, and left on a flight to Shanghai. However, it is still unknown whether these personnel will return to Pyongyang immediately as North Korea is now strictly controlling border access due to the 2019 coronavirus disease (Chinese Communist Virus, COVID-19) outbreak.
North Korea’s acting ambassador to Malaysia, Kim You Sung, also issued a statement before evacuating the embassy today, saying the incident was a U.S. plot to frame North Korea, and that the Malaysian government blindly supported the U.S. by extraditing innocent North Korean people to the U.S., destroying the relationship between Malaysia and North Korea, and that “the Malaysian government will suffer the consequences of this incident “.
The “innocent North Korean citizen,” as North Korea calls him, is a man who has lived in Malaysia for 10 years, Mun Chol Myong, who was accused by the FBI of supplying embargoed goods to North Korea and laundering money through his company, and who lost his case in the Malaysian Supreme Court and will be extradited to the United States.
The Korean Central Daily quoted former intelligence officers as saying that North Korea used to set up empty companies in Malaysia to circumvent sanctions, in addition to supplying embargoed goods, money laundering, but also to collect South Korea-related information, Moon Cheol Myong is one of them; and this Time Moon Cheol Myong was extradited, the North Korean authorities fear that the pipeline to circumvent sanctions in Southeast Asia may be exposed, so forcibly cut off diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
The report speculates that the 30-odd people evacuated from the embassy today are likely to include those engaged in related activities in Malaysia.
The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1973, but after the death of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur’s International Airport No. 2 in 2017, the Malaysian embassy in Pyongyang has been suspended, and relations between the two countries have deteriorated rapidly.
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