Powered By Blogger

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Kim Jong-Nam's body to be returned to North Korea under deal with Malaysia

Malaysia has agreed to release the body of Kim Jong-Nam to North Korea in return for the release of nine Malaysians being held there.

Mr Kim, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, died last month after two women smeared a deadly nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport.

The killing, which has been widely blamed on Pyongyang, led to the breakdown of Malaysia's normally close relations with the secretive regime.

In tit-for-tat moves, the two countries first withdrew their ambassadors, then banned each other's citizens from leaving its soil.

But the day after, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, adopted a more conciliatory tone, saying the dispute would be solved through quiet negotiations.

Those talks, which he described as "very sensitive", have been successful as on Thursday, Mr Razak announced the deal.

He said: "I had a deep personal concern about this matter, and we worked intensively behind the scenes to achieve this successful outcome.

"Many challenges were overcome to ensure the return of our fellow Malaysians."

No comments:

Post a Comment