North Korea envoy leaves Malaysia after expulsion

By P Prem Kumar

KUALA LUMPUR (AA) - Expelled North Korean Ambassador to Malaysia left the country Monday after being declared "persona non grata" by the Malaysian government on Saturday.

Kang Chol left Malaysia at 6.25pm local time (1025GMT) via Malaysia Airlines flight MH360 to Beijing, a police source told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

"I express grave concern over the extreme measures taken by the Malaysian government, doing great harm to bilateral relations," Kang spoke to reporters while walking in a heavily guarded entourage.

Last Saturday, Kang was stripped of his position and given 48 hours to leave the country after he failed to apologise for his statements blaming the federal government for the death of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He also failed to attend a Foreign Ministry meeting, which prompted Foreign Minister Anifah Aman to declare him an unwanted person.

Kang had alleged that the conduct of the investigation into the Feb. 13 killing of Jong-nam by two female assassins indicated that the Malaysian government had something to hide and that local authorities had colluded with outside powers to defame his country, namely South Korea.

North Korea, meanwhile, remains steadfast in its unverified conclusion that Jong-nam died of a heart attack, and not due to the VX nerve agent as found by the police and health authorities.

Persona Non Grata literally means "Person Not Appreciated". A person declared as such by the receiving state is barred from entering or remaining in the country. It is the most serious form of disapproval that a country can apply to foreign diplomats.

It is also often used to express displeasure at the conduct or policies of the sending state.

- Malaysia football team not to play North Korea

In another development on Monday, the Malaysian government barred the national football team from playing North Korea in Pyongyang later this month, due to security reasons.

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said in a statement that the government had instructed them of the ministerial cabinet's decision not to allow the team to play the match.

"We received a letter from the Foreign Ministry last Thursday that the match venue is safe. However, the government's decision to expel North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia has made it unsafe for Malaysians to travel to North Korea," Secretary-General Hamidin Mohd Amin said.

He added the FAM had written to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to request that the match be played at a neutral venue, besides North Korea and Malaysia.

The Malaysian football team were due to kick off their Asian Cup Group B campaign against North Korea at the Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang on March 28. The other teams in the group are Hong Kong and Lebanon.

- Murder suspect's lawyer claims innocence

The Vietnamese suspect, who allegedly participated in Kim Jong-nam's murder is innocent, according to her Malaysian lawyer, local Vietnamese media reported Monday.

Selvam Shanmugam, who is defending 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong, said he was "strongly convinced" of her innocence while speaking to the VN Express news site during a fact-finding trip to Vietnam.

Dismissing Malaysian reports that Jong-nam was killed by a VX nerve agent allegedly sprayed into his face by Huong, Shanmugam echoed North Korean claims that the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died of natural causes.

Exposure to VX, he said, would have likely killed Huong, too.

He also argued that it was unlikely that Huong would have returned to the scene of the murder days later wearing the same "LOL" shirt that had been previously publicized.

*Bennett Murray contributed to this story from Hanoi, Vietnam.