Everything About the Diplomatic ‘Break-Up’ Between M’sia & North Korea Simplified for You

After North Korea decided to break ties with Malaysia over the extradition of its citizen to the United States broke the news, it left many wondering… since when is Malaysia buddies with North Korea?

Well, here are all the juicy details from the very beginning of this unlikely friendship between nations and how it turned sour real fast, much like Katy Perry and Rihanna’s very public fallout despite being the closest of friends back in the early 2010s.

1974: The North Korean embassy was established in Kuala Lumpur.

Despite being dubbed as a “hermit kingdom”, North Korea has always had diplomatic relationships with other communist countries. However, between the 1960s and 1970s, this changed.

As part of North Korea’s efforts to forge ties with the world, it has reached out to other neighbouring developing countries, including Malaysia.

2004: Malaysia opened its embassy in Pyongyang.

It also sent its first ambassador there. Pretty lit, right? Until you read the next point.

2009: Malaysians can travel to North Korea without a visa.

Malaysia is the first country to obtain this visa-free travel perk, thanks to years of good diplomatic ties with North Korea. North Koreans can also arrive in Malaysia for work, specifically to Sarawak to work in coal mines.

2011: North Korea opened an air route to Malaysia.

This is mainly to attract more Malaysian tourists to visit the country. However, all of this ended in early January 2017 when Malaysia, under pressure from United Nations Security Council sanctions and the United States, stopped allowing Air Koryo, the North Korean state airline, from entering the country.

2013: Fun fact – Did you know the supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un was awarded an honorary doctorate in Economics from HELP University (a Malaysian university)?

And just as you thought there would be another Crash Landing on You…

2017: The Highly-Publicized Assassination of Kim Jong-Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia.

This is where everything went down the hill real fast.

In an attempt to secure his position, Kim Jong-un allegedly hired an assassin to kill his estranged half-brother and the eldest son of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-Nam, at an airport in Malaysia.

An assassination is typically pretty vague and well… silent, leaving other people none the wiser, but what makes this attempt so publicized is the fact that everything was caught on a nearby CCTV and that it happened in broad daylight, and in a place that’s typically thronged with people (and hence, witnesses).

Kim Jong-Nam was first distracted by a woman when she approached him, giving her accomplice, another woman to walk up right behind him.

As she approached, she reached into her handbag and brought out a cloth soaked in a nerve agent called liquid VX.

From behind, she reached around his head and held the cloth to his face, long enough for him to inhale the deadly poison.

Both women quickly left the scene while Kim Jong-Nam, who started to feel the effects of the poison, stumbled to the help desk to ask for help.

He died on the way to the hospital.

Both women who were on tape were apprehended, but in their defence, they claimed that they thought they were part of a reality TV show where people were pranked.

There were four more North Korean nationals who were identified as suspects by the Malaysian police but they managed to leave the country.

The fallout from this assassination is, as you might imagine, HUGE.

During the investigation, North Korea accused Malaysia of colluding with its enemies, while vehemently denying any allegations that they orchestrated the hit.

As a result, the Malaysian ambassador in North Korea was recalled; the reciprocal visa-free entry that was granted to North Korean citizens was revoked; and the North Korean ambassador, Kang Chol, was expelled from the country. North Korea retaliated in kind.

2018: As a snub, Malaysia rejected Pyongyang’s invitation to attend a military parade.

2020: After years of tension over the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, Malaysia officially announced the reopening of its Embassy in North Korea.

But this didn’t actually happen because of a political coup, which was dubbed as the Sheraton Move, resulting in the fall of the short-lived coalition government of Pakatan Harapan that was led by Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, and the rise of a new coalition government, Perikatan Nasional that was led by Muhyiddin Yassin.

…and this brings us to the here and now.

2021: Diplomatic ties between Malaysia and North Korea are severed.

North Korean businessman, Mun Chol Myong, was to be extradited to the United States on money laundering charges that his lawyers insisted were linked to his activities in Singapore, besides violating United Nations sanctions.

He appealed the extradition and was rejected by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

The North Korean foreign ministry promptly announced via a statement published on its state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that Malaysia has “committed an unpardonable crime… of forcibly delivering the innocent citizen (of North Korea) to the United States” and that there will be a “total severance of the diplomatic relations with Malaysia” due to what it deems to be a “hostile act” against Pyongyang.

In a statement released by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia has decided to close its embassy in Pyongyang (though, Malaysia has not had an ambassador there since 2017), and ordered all North Korean diplomatic staff and their dependents at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur to pack up and leave within 48 hours.

And yes, that marks the end, which kind of also involved Singapore.

Featured Image: Djohan Shahrin / Shutterstock.com