North Korea orders expulsion of Malaysian ambassador : KCNA

Unofficial talks between the United States and North Korea, planned to be held in NY this month, were also canceled after the sensational killing of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur’s worldwide airport last month.

The death of Kim, the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has unleashed a diplomatic battle between Malaysia and North Korea.

Angry exchanges over allegations North Korean agents orchestrated the murder and the expulsion of North Korea’s envoy in Kuala Lumpur escalated on Tuesday into a temporary ban on all Malaysians leaving North Korea. So, despite occasional interventions or at least offers to mediate, Asean has been able to do very little to slow the pace of North Korean military technological development.

On Monday, Moscow also expressed concern over the North Korean launch.

The tit-for-tat escalation is only part of a diplomatic nightmare engulfing Asia, with North Korea at its core.

Pyongyang fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan’s northwest coast on Monday, angering South Korea and Japan, days after it promised retaliation over U.S.

North Korea has launched a missile near its border with China, according to reports by South Korea.

The decision to deploy the US military’s anti-missile defense system could worsen the fragile relationship between South Korea and China, Reuters reported.

It was too early to say what the relatively low altitude indicated about the types of missiles, he added.

The US withdrew nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991 before the rival Koreas signed a declaration on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea and China have strongly opposed the missile shield system, calling it a threat to national security. Therefore, they say, it poses no threat to Beijing.

The US State Department’s East Asian and Pacific Affairs assistant secretary Daniel Russel also praised Malaysian authorities had carried out a professional investigation into the murder of King Jong-nam, The Star reported today. He died within 20 minutes.

Malaysia has refused to hand over his body to North Korea which is suspected of being behind the killing as the poison was nearly certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms North Korea’s decision to prevent Malaysian citizens from leaving the country”.

“It is a matter of time before they come out”, Royal Malaysia Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said.

“We absolutely see no place for chemical weapons in any situation whatsoever, so it’s incredibly disturbing”, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters after the Security Council meeting. The location of one remains unknown.

Until this week Malaysia was one of the few countries that North Koreans could enter visa without a visa. In response to the drills previous year, North Korea fired a long-range rocket that put an object into orbit.

Seoul said its armed forces were “closely monitoring the North’s military for further provocations and maintaining military readiness”.

After North Korea announced Tuesday it was banning all Malaysians from leaving the country, Kuala Lumpur retaliated.