North Korea issue: Police to monitor developments, heighten security - IGP

KUALA LUMPUR: All police commissioners, state police chiefs and police department directors have been ordered to monitor the current developments relating to the Malaysia-North Korea rift following the statement issued by Charge d'Affaires of the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia, Kim Yu Song.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador said the police are taking precautionary measures to avoid the possibility of any untoward incidents happening in the country.

“The police always adopt a cautious approach because many (security-related) incidents are associated with North Korea.

“The move to increase and double surveillance and observation at sensitive locations will continue until a point and date where we feel comfortable that there are no such risks,” he told a media conference here today.

Abdul Hamid said he hoped the rift will be settled properly and if the North Korean government were dissatisfied, they could act according to international protocol.

“The rift occurred not because we want to antagonise North Korea as they were the ones who decided to cut diplomatic ties with Malaysia out of anger when one of their citizens was extradited to the United States,” Abdul Hamid said.

Last Friday, Pyongyang announced that it had ended diplomatic relations with Malaysia after a Malaysian court decided early this month that a North Korean businessman could be extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges there.

On the same day, Wisma Putra, in a statement, said that it regretted North Korea’s decision and as a response, Malaysia would close its main embassy there after having suspended its operations in 2017.

The government also instructed all North Korean diplomatic staff and their families in Kuala Lumpur to leave the country within 48 hours on the same day.

Malaysia and North Korea forged diplomatic relations in 1973 and built further diplomatic and trade achievements until 2017, when Kim Jong-nam, the estranged brother of North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, was assassinated in Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA