Besides expelling the North Korean ambassador the government of Malaysia should close the embassy entirely:
North Korean embassy in Malaysia.
The Malaysian foreign ministry has cited North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol’s refusal to accept formal summons as the reason for its decision to expel him, official sources said Sunday.
On Saturday, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its decision to kick out North Korea’s ambassador, ordering him to leave the country by Monday 6 p.m.
The decision was the latest in a series of punitive actions Malaysia has taken in response to North Korea’s assassination of leader Kim Jong-un’s estranged half brother Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13.
Kang was told to show up for a meeting with a Malaysian foreign ministry official on Saturday evening, but neither he nor the North Korean Embassy responded, the Malaysian foreign ministry said in its statement. It said this failure to respond to the summons as the reason for Kang’s expulsion. [Yonhap]
As everyone has seen the US government has been filled with leakers ever since President Trump took office and here is the latest leak:
A White House internal review of strategy on North Korea features the possibility of both military force as well as regime change in order to thwart Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons threat, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday citing sources familiar with the process.
The strategy review, reported to have begun a fortnight ago, combined with U.S. President Donald Trump‘s January vow to prevent North Korea from ever testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. The report – which could not be verified by CNBC – hints at a possible shift in U.S. foreign policy which could potentially rattle allies of both nations. [CNBC]
A strategy review is just that, a review of different strategic options to address the North Korean threat which military strikes and regime change has long been potential options. I am sure there are other options in the report to include negotiations or the strategic patience option the Obama administration followed. Just because a report has military options does not mean he is going to use them. I bet the Obama administration had similar reports that looked at the viability of military options as well.
This looks like another example of media sensationalism to me.
You can’t put nothing passed the Kim regime, but I doubt they would sell the large amount of VX nerve gas needed to launch a massive terrorist strike. If they sold the nerve agent it was linked back to them it would lead to a retaliatory strike or worse regime removal. It doesn’t seem like it would be worth the risk to them even if they are cash strapped:
The use of the nerve agent VX in the killing of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korea’s leader, raises the dangerous specter of a cash-strapped Pyongyang ultimately selling such a chemical weapon to terrorist groups like al-Qaida, a former senior diplomat warned Wednesday.
The use of VX added to mounting evidence that North Korea was behind Kim’s killing in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. VX is a chemical agent listed as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations and its use is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which the North is not a signatory.
Eight North Koreans have been named as suspects, but the North has denied its involvement.
“The specter of chemical weapons proliferation, of VX in the hands of terrorists, now looms ever larger,” James Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state, said in an article in the Politico.
“The apparent shipment from North Korea to Malaysia of VX — a lethal substance banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention — is a brazen violation of international law despite the fact that North Korea is not a signatory to the convention,” he said. [Yonhap]
Considering North Korea’s long criminal history it makes you wonder why the Malaysian government had a visa waiver program with North Korea in the first place?:
North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Malaysia has canceled its visa waiver arrangement with North Korea amid a diplomatic spat over the assassination of the half brother of the North’s leader, a news report said Thursday.
The cancellation will take effect on March 6, after which North Koreans entering Malaysia will be required to obtain a visa, Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted the country’s deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, as saying. He cited national security as the reason.
This marks Malaysia’s first tangible action taken against Pyongyang following the assassination of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. [Yonhap]
Here is the other development regarding the Kim Jong-nam murder case:
Malaysia has decided to release and deport Ri Jong-chol, a 47-year-old North Korean suspect, due to a lack of incriminating evidence, AP reported.
Four North Korean suspects are believed to have fled Malaysia on the day of Kim Jong-nam’s death while three others, including Hyon Kwang-song, the second secretary at the North’s embassy in Malaysia, are wanted for questioning. [Yonhap]
I was curious to why Ri Jong-chol did not flee like the other North Korean agents if he was in fact part of the murder plot. Considering Malaysian authorities had no evidence to convict him it appears he was not involved.
So many people think of Kim Jong-un as a crazy madman, however I consider him to be a rational, but ruthless leader. The things he does may seem crazy, but they tend to always have the purpose of maintaining his regime’s survival. Understanding that Kim Jong-un is a rational actor instead of a crazy madman is basically what this Joong Ang Ilbo op-ed is stating:
That the younger Kim is ruthless is unquestionable. But he is not necessarily crazy. If he had an uncontrollable violent temper, his father would not have groomed him to succeed him. His economic policy alone shows him to be practical to an extent. It may be naïve to blame an instable temperament for his acts of brutality and to assume that they underscore the vulnerability of the North Korean state. Such a simple interpretation could distort our North Korean policy.
Tyranny could be his choice. It is certainly his inheritance. Kim Jong-un may be naturally ruthless, or strategically so. It could be a means to maintain power. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin resorted to an infamous reign of terror. Under his command, 5 percent of the Soviet population was killed. He ordered the execution of 700,000 from 1937 to 1938. Such sheer brutality reveal him to be a hideous madman. But such terror was also necessary to build his authority and transform the Soviet Union into a global superpower. Studies of confidential documents by Stalin paint him as a reasonable dictator. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read much more at the link.
Kim does not want to be the next Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi, dictators that were eventually executed by their own people. Kim’s inheritance is a mafia state which his father Kim Jong-il understood that only someone willing to be ruthless could run. That is why his oldest son Kim Jong-nam was passed over because he was simply too nice to run a mafia state. Kim Jong-un on the other hand was clearly the correct choice because he has shown he is willing to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the regime’s survival. So Kim Jong-un is not crazy, he just ruthless.
I just don’t see how North Korea does not get put back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List after this latest news that they used a weapon of mass destruction to kill someone within a busy airport:
A police officer checks his phone inside the forensic department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Malaysia Friday. Police announced the banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used in the murder of Kim Jong-nam last week at the airport in Kuala Lumpur. [AP/YONHAP]Malaysian police announced Friday that the poison used to kill Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was VX nerve agent, a type of chemical weapon.
“The chemical substance on the exhibits has been identified as VX nerve agent,” Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a press briefing on Friday. The inspector general added that the chemical was detected from swabs of Kim’s eyes and face, citing a preliminary toxicology test by the Malaysian government’s chemistry department.
The odorless and colorless VX nerve agent is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies VX as “the most potent of all nerve agents.”
The Malaysian authorities said they are investigating how the internationally banned chemical weapon made its way into Malaysia. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but something I am wondering is how did the VX kill Kim Jong-nam, but not the two women who had it on their hands when they attacked him? Have the North Koreans developed a new type of VX agent that only kills when it makes contact with the eyes perhaps?
Finally according to the article it is believed that North Korea has 5,000 tons of sarin and VX nerve agents. Seeing how effective this agent was with quickly killing Kim Jong-nam can you imagine what an aerial dispersal of this weapon would do if released in Seoul?
