KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — Hidden in an upscale neighbourhood along Jalan Batai in Damansara Heights is the embassy of one of the world’s most secretive countries.
The Embassy of the Democratic Party Republic of Korea, or North Korea, is housed in a huge bungalow with a high perimetre wall with rusted barbed wire.
Like other embassies here, it is open during office hours.
Regular day calls to the embassy may be answered by an operator, but since the death of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, the phone has been mostly off the hook.
Malay Mail noted there were no obvious surveillance measures other than a single security camera, but the country is known to employ a range of sophisticated surveillance equipment.
A large radio transmitter and satellite dish are conspicuously placed in front of the embassy and are likely used for direct communication with Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
The antenna is of the Yagi-Uda type with and eight element radio transmitter and is directional, allowing for high frequency radio waves to broadcast messages over long distances.
A Foreign Ministry source told Malay Mail there is believed to be 12 staff members working in the embassy full time.
No Malaysians are believed to be employed by the embassy which has at least five vehicles with diplomatic number plates.
Based on advertisements for other homes in the area, the bungalow is likely to contain at least seven bedrooms and six bathrooms but it is unknown if its new owners had modified it since it was opened in 2003, the same year Malaysia established its mission in North Korea.
North Korea is notorious for its treatment of “enemies of the state” and the previous ambassador to Malaysia, Jang Yong-chol was recalled and executed in 2014 as part of a political purge.
The country has embassies in 24 countries, and diplomatic missions in 36 others countries with the most important being its China, Russia and Pakistan missions.
