- Joined
- Aug 19, 2008
- Messages
- 38,279
- Points
- 113
https://www.nknews.org/2019/11/mala...in-pyongyang-next-year-foreign-minister-says/
Malaysia to reopen embassy in Pyongyang next year, foreign minister says
Vice foreign minister also set to visit DPRK by the end of the year
Colin Zwirko November 21, 2019
Malaysia will reopen its Pyongyang embassy in 2020, the country’s foreign minister announced Thursday, following its partial closure in the wake of a North Korean-orchestrated assassination in a Kuala Lumpur airport almost three years ago.
A primary reason for the reopening is to “encourage” North Korean engagement with the U.S. and others, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said during a press conference in Moscow alongside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
“We look at the Korean peninsula seriously, we are very supportive of all efforts in trying to negotiate for peace, especially between DPRK and ROK,” Saifuddin said.
“And because of that, Malaysia is very happy that there was this negotiation that has started between President Trump and Chairman Kim. We want this meeting to go on.”
He added, however, that “for this kind of negotiation to proceed, you sometimes need to encourage people. And we thought we would want to encourage DPRK by showing our moral support, by reactivating our embassy in Pyongyang.”
Speaking before Saifuddin, Russian foreign minister Lavrov implied that Malaysia has also been involved in helping to set up meetings between the U.S. President and North Korean leader.
Saifuddin and Lavrov during the press conference Thursday | Photo: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“Both us and Malaysia, we created the direct contacts between North Korea and the United States and contacts between the leaders of the two countries, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un. But recently these contacts ceased,” he said.
Saifuddin later said that the embassy would open “next year,” again saying the purpose would be “to show that we want to encourage the peace process.”
On why the embassy was closed in April 2017 with the withdrawal of staff and the ambassador, the Malaysian foreign minister said the country “closed our embassy in North Korea a few years ago due to some …,” pausing for a few moments, and then saying, “incidents.”
As part of the process of rekindling ties, the Malaysian “vice minister of foreign affairs will be visiting Pyongyang at the end of the year,” he said, also mentioning the visit in recent weeks to Kuala Lumpur by DPRK vice foreign minister Ri Kil Song.
The “incidents” to which the foreign minister referred is the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother Kim Jong Nam at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017.
Kim Jong Nam was found to have been assassinated by two young women recruited by North Korean agents to smear VX chemical nerve agents on his face in the airport.
Both women were arrested shortly after the incident but were subsequently freed earlier this year after their cases were dropped, while all eight North Korean suspects initially sought by Malaysian police were all allowed to leave the country with no charges lodged against them.
The Malaysian embassy workers in Pyongyang were subsequently allowed to leave North Korea as part of a deal that lifted a ban on respective nationals from each country returning home and allowed the DPRK to retrieve Kim Jong Nam’s body.
Bilateral relations further deteriorated following the assassination and also DPRK military actions that year, resulting in Malaysia banning its citizens later in 2017 from traveling to North Korea.
An investigation from NK News’s sister site NK Pro found in early 2018, however, that trade had nonetheless continued between the two countries.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has also been expressing interest in a restart to bilateral relations for over a year, saying in June 2018 that he wished to reopen the embassy and “try to establish a good relation including a trade relation with North Korea.”
The Prime Minister also met with the Vice Chairman of North Korea’s State Affairs Commission (SAC) Choe Ryong Hae at a top meeting of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) states in Azerbaijan late last month, where the two “discuss[ed] the issue of normalization of bilateral relations and the reopening of the Malaysian Embassy in Pyongyang.”
Choe and the Malaysian PM meeting in Baku last month | Photo: Twitter of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office
North Korea’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur remained open, despite the ambassador at the time being expelled shortly after the assassination at the airport, and was even vandalized by the anti-regime Cheollima Civil Defense group earlier this year.
NK News understands that the Malaysian embassy building in Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been well-maintained throughout the past few years, and while remaining unstaffed, the Malaysian flag has continued to be raised on occasion.
The official website for the embassy under the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described it over the years as being “temporarily closed.”
Edited by Oliver Hotham
Featured image: Website of the Malaysian Embassy in Pyongyang, modified by NK News
Malaysia to reopen embassy in Pyongyang next year, foreign minister says
Vice foreign minister also set to visit DPRK by the end of the year
Colin Zwirko November 21, 2019
Malaysia will reopen its Pyongyang embassy in 2020, the country’s foreign minister announced Thursday, following its partial closure in the wake of a North Korean-orchestrated assassination in a Kuala Lumpur airport almost three years ago.
A primary reason for the reopening is to “encourage” North Korean engagement with the U.S. and others, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said during a press conference in Moscow alongside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
“We look at the Korean peninsula seriously, we are very supportive of all efforts in trying to negotiate for peace, especially between DPRK and ROK,” Saifuddin said.
“And because of that, Malaysia is very happy that there was this negotiation that has started between President Trump and Chairman Kim. We want this meeting to go on.”
He added, however, that “for this kind of negotiation to proceed, you sometimes need to encourage people. And we thought we would want to encourage DPRK by showing our moral support, by reactivating our embassy in Pyongyang.”
Speaking before Saifuddin, Russian foreign minister Lavrov implied that Malaysia has also been involved in helping to set up meetings between the U.S. President and North Korean leader.
Saifuddin and Lavrov during the press conference Thursday | Photo: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs“Both us and Malaysia, we created the direct contacts between North Korea and the United States and contacts between the leaders of the two countries, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un. But recently these contacts ceased,” he said.
Saifuddin later said that the embassy would open “next year,” again saying the purpose would be “to show that we want to encourage the peace process.”
On why the embassy was closed in April 2017 with the withdrawal of staff and the ambassador, the Malaysian foreign minister said the country “closed our embassy in North Korea a few years ago due to some …,” pausing for a few moments, and then saying, “incidents.”
As part of the process of rekindling ties, the Malaysian “vice minister of foreign affairs will be visiting Pyongyang at the end of the year,” he said, also mentioning the visit in recent weeks to Kuala Lumpur by DPRK vice foreign minister Ri Kil Song.
The “incidents” to which the foreign minister referred is the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother Kim Jong Nam at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017.
Kim Jong Nam was found to have been assassinated by two young women recruited by North Korean agents to smear VX chemical nerve agents on his face in the airport.
Both women were arrested shortly after the incident but were subsequently freed earlier this year after their cases were dropped, while all eight North Korean suspects initially sought by Malaysian police were all allowed to leave the country with no charges lodged against them.
The Malaysian embassy workers in Pyongyang were subsequently allowed to leave North Korea as part of a deal that lifted a ban on respective nationals from each country returning home and allowed the DPRK to retrieve Kim Jong Nam’s body.
Bilateral relations further deteriorated following the assassination and also DPRK military actions that year, resulting in Malaysia banning its citizens later in 2017 from traveling to North Korea.
An investigation from NK News’s sister site NK Pro found in early 2018, however, that trade had nonetheless continued between the two countries.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has also been expressing interest in a restart to bilateral relations for over a year, saying in June 2018 that he wished to reopen the embassy and “try to establish a good relation including a trade relation with North Korea.”
The Prime Minister also met with the Vice Chairman of North Korea’s State Affairs Commission (SAC) Choe Ryong Hae at a top meeting of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) states in Azerbaijan late last month, where the two “discuss[ed] the issue of normalization of bilateral relations and the reopening of the Malaysian Embassy in Pyongyang.”
Choe and the Malaysian PM meeting in Baku last month | Photo: Twitter of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s officeNorth Korea’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur remained open, despite the ambassador at the time being expelled shortly after the assassination at the airport, and was even vandalized by the anti-regime Cheollima Civil Defense group earlier this year.
NK News understands that the Malaysian embassy building in Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been well-maintained throughout the past few years, and while remaining unstaffed, the Malaysian flag has continued to be raised on occasion.
The official website for the embassy under the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described it over the years as being “temporarily closed.”
Edited by Oliver Hotham
Featured image: Website of the Malaysian Embassy in Pyongyang, modified by NK News
