KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia 鈥� Malaysia on Friday ordered all North Korean diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours, an escalation of a diplomatic spat over Malaysia鈥檚 move to extradite a North Korean suspect to the United States on money laundering charges.
The announcement came hours after North Korea said it was terminating diplomatic ties with Malaysia because it committed a 鈥渟uper-large hostile act ... in subservience to the U.S. pressure.鈥� North Korea called the money laundering charges an 鈥渁bsurd fabrication and (a) sheer plot鈥� orchestrated by the United States and warned Washington will 鈥減ay a due price.鈥�
It鈥檚 the latest development in growing animosity between Washington and Pyongyang, as the North ramps up pressure on the Biden administration over a nuclear standoff. Ties between North Korea and Malaysia have been virtually frozen since the slaying in 2017 of the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Malaysia's Foreign Ministry denounced North Korea's move as 鈥渦nfriendly and unconstructive." It said the government will order all diplomatic staff and their dependents at the North Korea Embassy to leave Malaysia within 48 hours.
It added that Malaysia was also compelled by North Korea's decision to shut its embassy in Pyongyang. Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein tweeted that all Malaysian diplomats in North Korea had returned after the embassy鈥檚 operations were suspended in 2017.
The ministry said Malaysia had sought to strengthen ties with North Korea 鈥渆ven after the deplorable assassination of Kim Jong Nam in 2017鈥� and that Pyongyang鈥檚 decision was 鈥渃learly unwarranted, disproportionate and certainly disruptive鈥� for regional peace and stability.
Malaysia鈥檚 Foreign Ministry
鈥淵es, we will be shutting down. We are now discussing the plans with our staff here and liaising with our government,鈥� Kim was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
North Korea has long used Malaysia as a crucial economic hub where it handled trade,
鈥淣orth Korea is taking a hard line because it thinks it must not back down (over the extradition) as it鈥檒l then have a war of nerves with the Biden government in the next four years,鈥� said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at South Korea鈥檚 Korea University.
Nam said North Korea also likely worries that similar cases involving North Korean nationals could occur in other Southeast Asian countries.
Threatening to cut ties with Malaysia was one of the North鈥檚 strongest options to express its anger with the Biden administration without jeopardizing an eventual return to nuclear negotiations with Washington, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul鈥檚 Korea Institute for National Unification.
North Korea has insisted it won鈥檛 engage in talks with Washington unless it abandons what Pyongyang鈥檚 perceives as a 鈥渉ostile鈥� policy. But experts say North Korea will eventually seek to return to diplomacy to find ways to get sanctions relief and revive its moribund economy.
Earlier this month, Malaysia鈥檚 top court ruled North Korean Mun Chol Myong could be extradited, rejecting his assertion the U.S. charge was politically motivated. Mun had lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019 after U.S. authorities requested his extradition.
In his affidavit, Mun denied U.S. accusations that he was involved in supplying luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions. He denied that he had laundered funds through front companies and that he issued fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to his country.
After that ruling, Mun鈥檚 family hired a lawyer to challenge the legality of the extradition. Lawyer Emile Ezra said the new legal bid
A Malaysian official said Mun was extradited on Wednesday. The ministry statement said the extradition was carried out only after all legal processes have been exhausted. It said it had to reject a series of North Korea's demarches for the government to intervene in the judicial process.
North Korea and Malaysia established diplomatic ties in 1973, but their relations suffered major setbacks over the 2017 killing of Kim Jong Nam.
Two women 鈥� one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese 鈥� were charged with colluding with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX nerve agent. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia the day Kim died. The two women were later released.
Malaysian officials never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kim鈥檚 death, but prosecutors made it clear throughout the trial that they suspected a North Korean connection. North Korea denied the victim was Kim Jong Nam and disputed it had any role in the man鈥檚 death.
South Korea鈥檚 spy service said North Korea had for several years tried to kill Kim Jong Nam, though he once sent a letter to Kim Jong Un begging for the lives of himself and his family members after an assassination attempt. Longtime North Korea watchers believe Kim Jong Un ordered his brother鈥檚 killing as part of efforts to remove potential rivals and cement his grip on power.
Amid an earlier diplomatic tit-for-tat, Malaysia scrapped visa-free entry for North Koreans and expelled the North鈥檚 ambassador before North Korea banned all Malaysians from exiting the country.
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Kim reported from Seoul. Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
Hyung-Jin Kim And Eileen Ng, The Associated Press
