The Straits Times of Singapore reported that the exchange, which included North Korean diplomat Kim Uk Il who is implicated in the murder of the estranged brother of the country’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un, comes on the heels of other deals Malaysia had made in the past.
It quoted Dr Johan Saravanamuttu, a Malaysian academic at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), as saying that Malaysia had also made concessions with kidnappers on the eastern coast of Sabah, and a separatist group that allegedly shot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine in 2014.
He said Prime Minister Najib Razak had been put “between a rock and a hard place” by North Korea’s move to bar the Malaysians from leaving the country.
“It’s a rather weak and meek capitulation to a rogue regime, especially given the nature of the crime. It seemed to be done with such impunity,” he was quoted as saying.
The daily also quoted Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International Studies foreign policy and security studies head Elina Noor as saying that there was no way Malaysia was going to play a high stakes game with the lives of the nine.
“Probably not a strategically ideal outcome for some on the outside but… the other alternatives were not really viable for Malaysia’s appetite,” The Straits Times quoted her as saying. “The situation was unprecedented for us. We have a steep learning curve ahead.”
RSIS research analyst David Han was quoted as saying that both countries showed their “desire to maintain their bilateral relations” with the agreement.
He added that the episode would however only worsen North Korea’s “pariah and rogue state image” in the world.
Najib had announced in a statement on March 30 that the nine Malaysians had been allowed to leave North Korea and that North Koreans in Malaysia would also be allowed to depart from here.
The Malaysians landed here safely the next morning.
The ban on the North Koreans was imposed after North Korea prevented the Malaysians there from leaving the country.
Jong Nam was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb 13 when two women suddenly appeared before him and allegedly smeared his face with the deadly VX nerve agent.
The two women, 25-year-old Siti Aisyah, an Indonesian, and 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese, have been charged in the Sepang Sessions Court with murder.