DPRK breaks ties with Malaysia

Pyongyang on Friday announced total severance of diplomatic relations with Malaysia over the extradition of a citizen of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the United States.

The announcement was made in a foreign ministry statement carried on state news wire KCNA.

▲ Photo/CFP

The country's foreign affairs ministry also warned that Washington would "pay a price" for its action.

On March 17, Malaysian authorities "committed an unpardonable crime... of forcibly delivering the innocent citizen (of DPRK) to the United States," the statement read.

DPRK's foreign ministry "hereby announces total severance of the diplomatic relations with Malaysia," the statement added, slamming what it called a "hostile act" committed against Pyongyang "in subservience to the US pressure."

In December 2019, a DPRK man named Mun Chol Myong was arrested in Malaysia after the US accused him of laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to DPRK.

Mun, who had lived in Malaysia and the region for a decade with his family, denied FBI claims in court, arguing that the charges were politically motivated. On March 3, he lost his final appeal in Malaysia's top court against extradition to the United States to face these charges.

In its statement on Friday, the KCNA claimed that the man who engaged for years in the "legitimate external trade activities in Singapore" was "innocent", insisting that it was an "absurd fabrication and sheer plot to argue that he was involved in 'illegal money laundering."

The ministry accused Malaysian authorities of "pro-US subservience" and negotiating a "free delivery" of weapons from the US in exchange for extraditing the DPRK citizen.

Malaysia's once-close ties with DPRK were severely downgraded after DPRK leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed at the Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. It was reported that two women smeared Kim's face with VX nerve agent, which the United Nations lists as a weapon of mass destruction, before Kim's eventual death.

"We warn in advance that the US — the backstage manipulator and main culprit of this incident — that it will also be made to pay a due price," KCNA reported.

On Thursday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the administration of President Joe Biden would complete a review of its DPRK policy in the next few weeks in close consultation with allies.

Source: CGTN