Malaysian turnout failure

The Malaysian intelligence service told the press that there are over a thousand North Korean citizens in the country on a permanent basis, many of whom are engaged in espionage. Question: How can this warning affect relations with Pyongyang, which, after the assassination of the half-brother of the DPRK leader, are already worse than ever?

It all started exactly a month ago, when on February 13, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, right under the security cameras, 45-year-old Kim Jong Nam, the elder brother of the current sole ruler of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, was killed. The investigation established that a composition based on the nerve agent VX (V-Ex) was applied to his face. The direct participants in the attack, citizens of Vietnam and Indonesia, have already been arrested and put on trial on charges of murder. The investigation claims that the four North Koreans involved in the attack immediately returned to Pyongyang by a circuitous route. Two more suspects are hiding in the DPRK embassy - it refuses to cooperate with local authorities.

Totalitarian regimes have one thing in common - an irrepressible thirst for power and the fear of losing it. This pushes them into steps that are destructive in terms of their own practical benefit. After all, Malaysia has so far been one of the very few countries that have sympathized with North Korea. Diplomatic relations between them were established in 1973, and in 2009, citizens of the DPRK were even allowed visa-free entry. This made it possible, according to many testimonies, to turn Malaysia into the most important springboard for espionage operations, the transfer of smuggling, and the illegal purchase of military materials. Numerous North Korean firms and restaurants were created there, controlled, as the local press now assures, by the DPRK Main Intelligence Bureau. In short, the tropical country in Southeast Asia has become a paradise for North Korean intelligence agencies. And now Pyongyang has destroyed this paradise with its own hands.

After the assassination, Malaysia withdrew its ambassador from the DPRK and expelled the North Korean ambassador. Pyongyang responded in its own way - it took hostages, banning all Malaysian citizens from leaving the DPRK until their government provides a so-called fair investigation into the incident at the airport. Pyongyang does not admit that the leader's half-brother was killed there, and calls the investigation into this case a provocation. In response, Malaysia also closed the exit from the country for citizens of the DPRK, and the right to visa-free entry for them was canceled. 140 North Koreans have already been arrested for "working without a permit" and the process may continue.

The bridgehead in the tropics, apparently, was a failure due to the irresistible desire of the leader of the DPRK to remove his older brother at any cost as a potential contender for the throne. And it was not easy to get to him, since Kim Jong Nam lived mainly in Beijing and Macau under the cover of the Chinese special services.

However, the assassination at the airport did not solve the problem of the pretender to the North Korean throne. On March 8, on behalf of a previously unknown organization, a 40-second video was posted on the Internet with a young man in a black shirt: he called himself in good English the son of the poisoned Kim Jong Nam and showed his passport. South Korean intelligence instantly confirmed his identity - apparently, a 22-year-old guy named Kim Han Sol, who previously studied in France and in an interview called his country a dictatorship, was safely hidden. It will be an important card for those who may be hoping for a future coup and a change of course in the DPRK.