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posted by janrinok on Thursday March 09 2017, @02:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the stand-off dept.

A handful of Malaysian citizens have been barred from leaving North Korea as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate:

North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, sparking tit-for-tat action by Malaysia, as police investigating the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur sought to question three men hiding in the North Korean embassy. Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of "effectively holding our citizens hostage" and held an emergency meeting of his National Security Council. The United Nations called for calm between Malaysia and North Korea and urged them to settle their differences through "established diplomatic practice."

The moves underscored the dramatic deterioration in ties with one of North Korea's few friends outside China since the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. Malaysia said the assassins used VX nerve agent, a chemical listed by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

[...] There are 11 Malaysians in North Korea, according to a Malaysian foreign ministry official, including three embassy staff, six family members, and two others.


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 09 2017, @04:12PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 09 2017, @04:12PM (#476998) Journal

    There was no real need for Malaysia to escalate things.

    There was no real need for North Korea to kill in the first place. But they did it. It is insane to express concern over Malaysia's supposed "escalation" while ignoring that North Korea murdered someone with particularly dangerous nerve gas-component chemicals in a busy airport.

    And given that North Korea is now murdering people openly in Malaysia and has little of value to offer Malaysia, it makes sense to permanently kick out their embassy to in turn permanently reduce the threat that North Korea offers to Malaysia. North Korea has nothing, but a few hostages at this point. They are quite limited to how they can escalate against Malaysia.

    Finally, it's quite foolish and cowardly to placate and reward madness and evil. Some poor sap gets murdered and now we're supposed to be worried about escalation from the innocent side? That train left the station. They have to do something just to protect themselves.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09 2017, @06:32PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09 2017, @06:32PM (#477054)

    now we're supposed to be worried about escalation from the innocent side

    Of course. There are 11 Malaysians still stuck in NK, if Malaysia didn't escalate those 11 could be in a better position than now.

    They have to do something just to protect themselves.

    When you are dealing with a mad dog and you suspect* it killed its bro, you are stupid to yank its tail while you still have limbs within range of its teeth. You get those limbs away first then you do stuff.

    The many North Koreans still on Malaysian soil could still "bite" but it's Malaysian territory so presumably Malaysia could watch them a lot more closely.

    * Last but not least there's no real proof that the NK Gov did it yet. So what the Malaysian authorities did was premature too from that angle.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 09 2017, @07:20PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 09 2017, @07:20PM (#477085) Journal

      Last but not least there's no real proof that the NK Gov did it yet.

      Would anything be provable with that standard of proof? VX poisoning right there puts it in the domain of the nation-state and North Korea is the only nation-state that has an interest in seeing this particular fellow dead. Then we have a number of North Korean suspects involved, all who managed to leave Malaysia the very day of the assassination.