KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 ― Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysia will not cut ties with North Korea and is focused on returning its citizens stranded in Pyongyang.
“Diplomatic relations between Malaysia and North Korea will not be severed, as we need to continue communicating with them to find a solution.
“Insya-Allah, this situation will be resolved and our people who are detained in North Korea will soon be able to return home safely,” he said in a statement today just minutes after Kim Jong-un’s regime allowed two Malaysians to leave the country.
However, Najib said his government has not changed its firm stance towards North Korea.
“We will not relent from our firm approach. The emergency National Security Council meeting that I convened upheld our decision not to allow any North Koreans to leave Malaysia.
“This is a sensitive issue. Therefore, the government has decided that all negotiations and discussions will be conducted behind closed doors,” he added.
The prime minister said he can only disclose that the government is in the process of establishing the reasons and motives behind the actions of North Korea.
The two Malaysians allowed to leave North Korea are UN employees with its World Food Programme. International newswire Reuters reported that the duo are now in Beijing.
Nine Malaysians, comprising three embassy staff and their six family members, remain in the North Korean capital though they are allowed to move about freely within the country.
The diplomatic spat arose following the February 13 death of Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Malaysian soil.
Pyongyang had rejected Malaysian findings that the older Kim was poisoned with the lethal nerve agent VX and accused local authorities of conspiring with its enemies.
