KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 ― Fifty North Koreans in Sarawak will be sent home for exceeding their work visa periods, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.

The deputy prime minister said the group was being held at a Immigration detention centre.

"We will send the North Korean workers who are in Sarawak who have exceeded their visa period to be sent back to Pyongyang because the overstaying has caused for them to be charged and they will be deported,” Ahmad Zahid said when met by reporters outside the Parliament lobby today.

"Those with a valid visa are allowed to stay back,” the home minister added.

He also clarified that there are total of 315 North Korean nationals in the country, adding that those under the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme were not affected.

Putrajaya and Pyongyang are locked in a diplomatic row triggered by the killing of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged brother to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, here last month.