North Korea now even more lonely

North Korea had some bilateral ties with Malaysia. But following the death of Kim Jong-nam, all that is now at risk.

Emily Hohler
By
published
in Features

833-Kim-1200

The death of Kim Jong-nam has caused a diplomatic rift
(Image credit: 2001 The Asahi Shimbun)

North Korea could count on few friends even before the apparent poisoning of leader Kim Jong-un's older half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, at Kuala Lumpur airport on 13 February, says the Daily Mail. The "fallout" is likely further to isolate the nuclear-armed state. Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur enjoy some bilateral trade and citizens can travel to each other's countries under a "unique" reciprocal visa deal. Malaysia has also facilitated North Korea's links with the outside world. All that is now at risk.

Malaysia has recalled its ambassador to Pyongyang and officially reprimanded Kang Chol, the North Korean envoy to Kuala Lumpur, for saying that his country would "categorically reject the result of the post-mortem", says Richard Lloyd Parry inThe Times. Chol accused Malaysia of "colluding with hostile forces" and said that its failure to hand over the body implied a cover-up.

Malaysian police have so far arrested four people, and are trying to trace four other North Korean men. The South Korean prime minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, endorsed his country's intelligence agency's verdict that the attack was carried out by the North Korean government.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Although there were "no signs" that Kim Jong-nam, 45, harboured ambitions to return home or had "encouraged the overthrow of the current regime", Kim Jong-un could never "escape the assumption by many outsiders" that if his dictatorship was deposed, his older half-brother might be "tapped to lead a transition to a free, democratic North Korea", says Alastair Gale in The New York Times. Since taking power in 2011, South Korean authorities estimate that Kim Jong-un has "purged" more than 100 senior officials and ordered the execution of his uncle, Jang Sung-taek, who was close to Kim Jong-nam.

This could test "Beijing's patience with Pyongyang... like never before", says the Financial Times. A resident of Macau, Kim Jong-nam was under Chinese protection and was believed to have been "harboured by Beijing as a potential alternative" to Kim Jong-un. Yet the status quo "beats the prospect" of the collapse of North Korea, which could see millions of refugees stream into China.

Emily Hohler
Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.

Latest