US Embassy pleased Malaysians in North Korea returned home

The United States Embassy here is pleased that all Malaysian diplomats and their family members who had been barred from leaving North Korea, have been allowed to return to their home country.

In a statement today, the embassy described the barred departure of the nine Malaysians as a grave and unacceptable breach of the Vienna Convention.

"We support Malaysia's expressed intent to continue investigation into serious crimes committed on its territory," it said.

According to the statement, all possible measures must be taken to bring those responsible for the crimes to justice.

Tensions between Kuala Lumpur and Pyongyang arose following the murder of Jong-nam, 46, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) here on Feb 13.

On March 7, Pyongyang barred Malaysians in North Korea from leaving that country and Kuala Lumpur took the same action in a tit-for-tat move.

All of them left Pyongyang on a Royal Malaysian Air Force jet at 7.45pm (Malaysian time) yesterday and arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 5.03am today.

The nine are Malaysian Embassy staff and their families, namely Noor Saaidah Jamaludin, 29, (Ambassador's personal assistant), her husband Mohd Radzuan Othman, 29, their eight-month-old son Mohamad Radhiy; S. Nirmala Malar, 45, (administrative assistant); Mohd Nor Azrin, his wife Iza Karmila, and their three children. -- Bernama