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Norman Goh

A move by Pyongyang to sever ties with Malaysia, following the extradition of a North Korean national to the United States on money-laundering charges, could be aimed at testing the administration of US President Joe Biden, according to analysts.
Pyongyang announced on Friday that it was cutting diplomatic ties after a Malaysian Federal Court panel earlier this month threw out an appeal by the North Korean, Mun Chol-myong, to stop the extradition.
Mun faces four charges of money laundering in the US and two of conspiracy to launder related to his business in supplying prohibited luxury goods to North Korea from Singapore. He was put on a flight to the US on Wednesday.
North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said that in agreeing to the extradition, Malaysia had committed an “unpardonable crime”.
Blinken asks China to pressure North Korea into abandoning nukes
Malaysia’s New Straits Times reported on Friday that the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur was preparing to end operations.
“Yes, we will be shutting down,” charge d’affaires Kim Yu-song was quoted as saying. “We are now discussing the plans with our staff here and liaising with our government.”
Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry denounced North Korea’s move as “unfriendly and unconstructive” and one that disrespected “the spirit of mutual respect and good neighbourly relations among members of the international community”.
It also said Malaysia would now close its embassy in Pyongyang, whose operations had been suspended since 2017, and that it would order all diplomatic staff from the North Korean embassy to leave Malaysia within 48 hours.


Several analysts said Pyongyang’s anger at Malaysia may in part be aimed at gaining leverage with the US.
Hoo Chiew Ping, a senior lecturer in strategic studies and international relations at the National University of Malaysia, said that while North Korea viewed Malaysia as having “offered” a North Korean citizen “as a sacrifice to the hostile US”, the timing of the row suggested it was aimed at making a larger point with the White House.
“North Korea is signalling to the US that [it] is unlikely to talk to the Biden administration” and may be returning to its old strategy of avoiding communications with the US combined with provocations, such as nuclear tests, “to ensure regime survival”.
Bridget Welsh, a research associate with the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute Malaysia, also said North Korea was looking to “test” Biden, and that this case presented them with the opportunity to do so.
“This has been the pattern of the past – to test new administrations in the US” to see how they respond to such moves by the North, she said.

Malaysia formally established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1973 and opened an embassy in Pyongyang in 2003, and it had acted as a liaison between Pyongyang and the wider world in some instances until the embassy suspended operations in 2017 after the poisoning of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s brother, Kim Jong-nam, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Shahriman Lockman, director of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, called the North Korean move to end ties with Malaysia “puzzling” because there was “no great incentive for Malaysia to cave to North Korean pressure” given the lack of trade between the two countries, especially since Kim Jong-nam’s poisoning and death on Malaysian soil.

A HISTORY OF TENSIONS
The tussle between Malaysia and North Korea over Kim’s assassination led to the expulsion of the Malaysian ambassador to North Korea the same year. The women charged with the crime of poisoning Kim – one Vietnamese and one Indonesian – were later acquitted and released upon requests by their respective governments. Malaysia also filed a “red notice” through Interpol to locate and extradite four North Koreans believed to have masterminded the operation.
“The relationship has never been the same since North Korea used Malaysian soil to kill one of its own,” Welsh said. “North Korea is responsible for the deterioration of its relationship with Malaysia.”
Under the previous government of Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia had planned to reopen its embassy in Pyongyang, but that plan was put on the back burner when Muhyiddin Yassin took power. Hoo, of the National University of Malaysia, said North Korea was no longer a priority under Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional government.
North Korea snubs US offer for talks, citing its ‘hostile policy’
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, called Pyongyang’s move to sever ties with Malaysia “pretty bad news” that will “seriously damage efforts to improve ties between the US and the North”.
“I am afraid it could become a second BDA issue,” he said, referring to the freezing by the US of $25 million in North Korean funds at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia in 2005 and the sanctioning of the bank on grounds that it was laundering money for North Korea.
The North at that time angrily reacted, boycotting US-led multilateral talks on the denuclearisation of the North and conducting its first nuclear test in October 2006, followed by a series of ballistic missile tests.
Following a year-long deadlock over the issue, the money was unblocked in 2007 after an agreement was reached on denuclearisation, but the deal consequently collapsed, with both the US and the North blaming each other for failing to hold up to their ends of the deal.
“This extradition issue should have been dealt with by taking account of political reality rather than legal precision,” Yang said. “It will now make it much more difficult for diplomacy to work.”
Additional reporting by Park Chan-Kyong in Seoul, South Korea.


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Is North Korea’s move to cut ties with Malaysia a ‘test’ for Joe Biden?

The North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA-EFE

epaselect epa09083289 A Royal Malaysian Police officer is seen outside the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 19 March 2021. According to news reports published by Reuters and CNA, the North Korean regime vowed to cut ties with Malaysia, after authorities in Malaysia's high court ruled that a North Korean citizen named Mun Chol Myong should be extradicted to the USA to face money laundering charges. EPA-EFE/FAZRY ISMAIL

FILE - In this June 4, 2010, file photo, Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, waves after his first-ever interview with South Korean media in Macau. The murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother at an airport in Malaysia was brazen, intricately orchestrated and, thanks to scores of security cameras, witnessed by millions around the world. The real masterminds behind the killing, however, may never be brought to justice. (Shin In-seop/JoongAng Ilbo via AP, File)

Malaysia shuts embassy in North Korea as Pyongyang cuts diplomatic ties over US extradition of its citizen

An armed officer stands guard in front of a gate at the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. File photo: EPA

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: KCNA via Reuters

Blinken asks China to pressure North Korea into abandoning nuclear programme

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong in Seoul. Photo: EPA

epa09079297 US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (R) and South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook (L) inspect a guard of honor during a welcoming ceremony at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul, South Korea, 17 March 2021. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are on a two-day visit to South Korea. EPA-EFE/PARK JUNG-HOON / POOL

North Korea snubs US offer for talks, citing ‘hostile policy’, as Blinken continues Seoul visit

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: Reuters

In a handout image provided by the South Korean Foreign Ministry, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong pose for the media before their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on March 17, 2021. (South Korean Foreign Ministry via Getty Images/TNS)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watches a ballistic missile launch at an unknown location in 2019. Photo: AFP

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden over the phone on Thursday. Photo: South Korea Presidential Blue House via AP

North Korea's Kim Jong Un, left, and President Donald Trump meet on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea, in the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone on June 30, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Antony Blinken, U.S. secretary of state, introduces President Joe Biden, not pictured, at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. In his inaugural visit to the department, Biden said he is halting or reversing a slew of foreign policy initiatives from the Trump administration, including troop drawdowns in Germany and support for a Saudi-led offensive in Yemen that turned into a humanitarian disaster. Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden over the phone on Thursday. Photo: DPA

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Analysts say the timing of Pyongyang’s move to sever ties with Kuala Lumpur suggests it was done to gauge the White House’s reaction
The action was called ‘puzzling’, and one that could ‘seriously damage efforts to improve ties between the US and the North’



The action was called ‘puzzling’, and one that could ‘seriously damage efforts to improve ties between the US and the North’.


Is North Korea’s move to cut ties with Malaysia a ‘test’ for Joe Biden?

Analysts say the timing of Pyongyang’s move to sever ties with Kuala Lumpur suggests it was done to gauge the White House’s reaction The action was called ‘puzzling’, and one that could ‘seriously damage efforts to improve ties between the US and the North’

Analysts say the timing of Pyongyang’s move to sever ties with Kuala Lumpur suggests it was done to gauge the White House’s reaction

The action was called ‘puzzling’, and one that could ‘seriously damage efforts to improve ties between the US and the North’