U.S.-North Korea fight bursts into the open in Malaysia

Behind-the-scenes tension between the U.S. and North Korea burst into the open in Malaysia over the weekend, with Pyongyang accusing the southeast Asian nation of being “subservient” to Washington.

The regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed outrage over Malaysia’s extradition to the U.S. of a North Korean man that Washington has long accused of running a money-laundering operation on behalf of the regime.

Malaysian authorities extradited the man, Mun Chol Myong, over the weekend. In response, North Korea cut all ties with Malaysia, triggering outrage by the Malaysian government, which has, in turn, ordered all North Korean embassy staff and their dependents to leave the country.

The diplomatic fracas is a delicate one for the Kim regime, which has for years been accused in international intelligence circles of exploiting its embassy operations in Malaysia to bolster illegal cash flows to Pyongyang and engage in nefarious connections with other rogue nations around the world.

North Korea’s presence in Malaysia drew major scrutiny in 2017, when Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam was fatally attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by two women using VX nerve agent.

Prior to the weekend, North Korea and Malaysia had formal diplomatic ties in place since 1973.

Before departing North Korea’s embassy on the fringe of Kuala Lumpur’s city center, North Korea Charge d’Affaires Kim Yu Song read out a statement in which he slammed Malaysia for being “subservient” to the United States, according to a report over the weekend by the Japanese news service Kyodo.

“Not content with the putting of our innocent citizen in the dock by blindly favoring the U.S., the principal enemy of our state, the Malaysian authority delivered our citizen to the U.S. in the end, thus destroying the foundation of the bilateral relations based on the respect of sovereignty,” the North Korean Charge d’Affairs said.

Kyodo cited the Malaysian Foreign Ministry as saying Mun Chol Myong was only extradited after due legal processes had been exhausted.

Mr. Mun was taken into U.S. custody on Saturday, making him the first North Korean extradited to the U.S. to face trial, according to The Associated Press. The extradition came after a Malaysian court rejected his assertion that the charges were politically motivated. The Justice Department declined comment on Sunday.

AP reported that a federal judge in Washington had issued a warrant for Mun’s arrest on May 2, 2019, on money laundering and conspiracy charges. Mr. Mun, who is in his 50s, has lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019 after the U.S. requested his extradition.