WASHINGTON: A North Korean citizen was taken into US custody on Saturday (Mar 20) after being extradited from Malaysia to face money laundering charges, making him the first North Korean extradited to the US to face trial.
Mun Chol Myong was in the custody of the FBI in Washington, DC on Saturday, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. His extradition came after a Malaysian court rejected his assertion that the charges were politically motivated.
The Justice Department declined comment on Sunday.
A federal judge in Washington had issued a warrant for Mun’s arrest on May 2, 2019 on money laundering and conspiracy charges.
Kang Son Bi, wife of Mun Chol Myong, arrives at the Duta court complex in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 8, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Mohd Rasfan)
Mun, who is in his 50s, has lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019 after the US requested his extradition. Malaysia’s government approved the extradition, but Mun challenged the bid.
His lawyer has said Mun worries he won’t get a fair trial in the US. They have argued that the extradition is “politically motivated” and aimed to increase pressure on North Korea over the nation’s missile program.
Kim Yu Song (centre), a counselor at the North Korean Embassy to Malaysia, reads out a statement outside the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Mun has denied allegations that he was involved in supplying prohibited luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions before moving to Malaysia in 2008. He has also denied allegations he laundered funds through front companies and produced fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments.
North Korea said it had also terminated diplomatic ties with Malaysia over the decision to extradite Mun to the US in the latest development in growing animosity between Washington and Pyongyang as the North ramps up pressure on the Biden administration over a nuclear standoff.
MANILA: The Philippines on Sunday (Mar 21) accused China of "incursion" after more than 200 militia boats were spotted near a disputed reef in the South China Sea, in a rare rebuke of its superpower neighbour.
The Philippine coast guard detected the boats "in line formation" at the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef about 320km west of Palawan Island on Mar 7.
"We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.
"This is a clear provocative action of militarizing the area. These are territories well within Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone."
Lorenzana said the government was considering "appropriate action" to take to protect Filipino fishermen, the country's marine resources and maintain peace and stability in the area.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on Twitter he had lodged a diplomatic protest over the ships.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not respond to a request for comment.
A government task force charged with monitoring the contested waters announced Saturday the detection of about 220 "Chinese Maritime Militia Vessels" earlier this month.
"Despite clear weather at the time, the Chinese vessels massed at the reef showed no actual fishing activities," the agency said.
The United States has previously accused China of using maritime militia to "intimidate, coerce and threaten other nations" over its claims to almost the entire South China Sea.
The resource-rich waterway is also contested by several countries, including the Philippines.
China has ignored a 2016 international tribunal decision that declared its assertion as without basis.
Philippine-China relations have improved under President Rodrigo Duterte, who has tried to steer his country away from the ambit of the United States - its former colonial master - to pursue greater economic cooperation with its giant neighbour and American rival.
But Duterte's shift has failed to stem Chinese ambitions in the sea or unlock much of the billions of dollars of promised trade and loans.
He has repeatedly said conflict with China would be futile and that the Philippines would lose and suffer heavily in the process.
Lorenzana, however, has been more outspoken.
In August he accused China of illegally occupying Filipino maritime territory, saying the nine-dash line used by Beijing to justify its alleged historic rights to the key waterway was a fabrication.
His remarks at the time came amid a fresh row over the disputed Scarborough shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in 2012 following a tense standoff.
In 2019, the Philippines also complained after hundreds of Chinese ships were seen near Pag-asa island, also known as Thitu, which the country branded as "illegal".
MANILA: Churches in Manila will be closed, eating inside restaurants banned and leisure travel outside the Philippine capital curbed under new COVID-19 rules unveiled on Sunday (Mar 21) as the country battles a resurgence in infections.
The number of new cases has exceeded 7,000 for three days in a row - the highest since the start of the pandemic - taking the country's caseload to more than 663,000 and straining hospitals.
Around half of the active cases are in Metro Manila, where many of the 12 million inhabitants live in poor and overcrowded neighbourhoods.
"We have two goals: To reduce the transmission of the virus in Metro Manila and avoid the spread of the virus, especially of the new variants, outside Metro Manila because we know these are more transmissible," presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
The new rules will be in place for two weeks from Monday and also apply to the surrounding provinces of Rizal, Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan.
Public transport will continue to operate, and workers allowed to commute as the government stops short of imposing another devastating lockdown in the country's economic heartland.
But non-essential trips in and out of the targeted region are prohibited - a blow to already struggling tourism operators looking forward to the Easter holidays when many Filipinos flock to the country's beaches and mountains.
"We know that some of you have plans and you are looking forward to this Holy Week break, but if we allow unimpeded travel right now, the new variants of the virus will spread faster in different parts of the Philippines," Roque said.
Independent research group OCTA on Saturday called for "drastic and immediate action" to slow the spread of the virus.
Its current modelling shows hospital beds, including intensive care, in the capital will be full by the first week of April.
The North Korean flag and embassy signage have been removed from the premises in a Kuala Lumpur suburb and the gates were chained up.
Ties between North Korea and Malaysia have been virtually frozen since the 2017 assassination of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Two days after Kuala Lumpur extradited a North Korean man to the US to face money laundering charges, a furious North Korea on Friday announced that it was terminating ties with Malaysia. Malaysia denounced the decision and, in a tit-for-tat response, gave North Korean diplomats 48 hours to leave.
Kim Yu Song (centre) counsellor at the North Korean embassy in Malaysia, reads out a statement outside the embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
North Korean embassy counsellor Kim Yu Song carries a box inside the compounds of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Aliff Nor)
"UNPARDONABLE CRIME"
Kim Yu Song, the charge d’affaires and counsellor in Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysia had “committed an unpardonable crime". Echoing Pyongyang's earlier statement, he accused Malaysia of being subservient to the US and of being part of a US conspiracy aimed at “isolating and suffocating" his country.
“This incident made by the Malaysian authority constitutes an undisguised alignment with and direct engagement in the anti-DPRK hostile manoeuvre of the United States which seeks to deprive our state of its sovereignty and rights to existence and development," he said in a short statement outside the embassy, before heading to the airport.
"Not content with putting our innocent citizen in the dock by blindly (favouring) with the US – the principal enemy of our state – the Malaysian authority delivered our citizen to the US in the end, thus destroying the entire foundation of the bilateral relations based on the respect for sovereignty."
"The Malaysian authority will bear full responsibility for all the consequences to be incurred between the two countries," he added.
North Korea has called the money laundering charges an "absurd fabrication and (a) sheer plot" orchestrated by the US, and warned Washington will "pay a due price".
A group of North Koreans and their family members departed from the embassy on a bus. They arrived later at Kuala Lumpur airport, loaded stacks of luggage onto trolleys and went to check in at the counters used by regular passengers.
Kim confirmed to AFP the group, about 30-strong, was heading first to Shanghai. Their flight for the city departed in the afternoon, although it was not clear how or when they would travel on to North Korea.
Some experts say cutting ties with Malaysia was North Korea's way of showing anger with President Joe Biden's administration, without jeopardising an eventual return to nuclear negotiations with Washington.
North Korea has insisted it would not engage in talks with Washington unless it abandons what Pyongyang’s perceives as a “hostile” policy. But experts say North Korea will eventually seek to return to diplomacy to find ways to get sanctions relief and revive its moribund economy.
Malaysia has defended its move to extradite Mun Chol Myong, saying it was carried out only after all legal processes had been exhausted. A top court ruled Mun can be extradited after rejecting his appeal on grounds that the US charges were politically motivated.
Mun, who lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019, has denied US accusations that he was involved in supplying luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions while working in Singapore.
He denied laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to his country.
A bus carrying staff of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur leaves the embassy compound on Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
The North Korean flag and a plaque were taken down from the country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the gates were chained up. (Photo: AFP/Aliff Nor)
North Korea has long used Malaysia as a crucial economic hub where it handled trade, labour exports and some illicit businesses in Southeast Asia, but their relations suffered major setbacks over the 2017 killing of Kim Jong Nam.
Two women - one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese - were charged with colluding with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX nerve agent. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia the day Kim died. The two women were later released.
Malaysian officials never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kim Jong Nam’s death, but prosecutors made it clear throughout the trial that they suspected a North Korean connection.
North Korea denied the victim was Kim Jong Nam and disputed it had any role in the man’s death. Longtime North Korea watchers believe Kim Jong Un ordered his brother’s killing as part of efforts to remove potential rivals and cement his grip on power.
The North Korean flag and embassy signage have been removed from the premises in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Two buses ferried the diplomats and their families to the airport, where they were seen checking in for a flight to Shanghai.
Ties between North Korea and Malaysia have been virtually frozen since the 2017 assassination of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Two days after Kuala Lumpur extradited a North Korean man to the US to face money laundering charges, a furious North Korea on Friday announced that it was terminating ties with Malaysia. Malaysia denounced the decision and, in a tit-for-tat response, gave North Korean diplomats 48 hours to leave.
Kim Yu Song (centre) counsellor at the North Korean embassy in Malaysia, reads out a statement outside the embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
North Korean embassy counsellor Kim Yu Song carries a box inside the compounds of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Aliff Nor)
Kim Yu Song, the charge d’affaires and counsellor in Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysia had “committed an unpardonable crime". Echoing Pyongyang's earlier statement, he accused Malaysia of being subservient to the US and of being part of a US conspiracy aimed at “isolating and suffocating" his country.
“This incident made by the Malaysian authority constitutes an undisguised alignment with and direct engagement in the anti-DPRK hostile manoeuvre of the United States which seeks to deprive our state of its sovereignty and rights to existence and development," he said in a short statement outside the embassy, before heading to the airport.
"Not content with putting our innocent citizen in the dock by blindly (favouring) with the US – the principal enemy of our state – the Malaysian authority delivered our citizen to the US in the end, thus destroying the entire foundation of the bilateral relations based on the respect for sovereignty."
"The Malaysian authority will bear full responsibility for all the consequences to be incurred between the two countries," he added.
North Korea has called the money laundering charges an “absurd fabrication and (a) sheer plot” orchestrated by the US, and warned Washington will “pay a due price".
Some experts say cutting ties with Malaysia was North Korea's way of showing anger with President Joe Biden's administration, without jeopardising an eventual return to nuclear negotiations with Washington.
North Korea has insisted it would not engage in talks with Washington unless it abandons what Pyongyang’s perceives as a “hostile” policy. But experts say North Korea will eventually seek to return to diplomacy to find ways to get sanctions relief and revive its moribund economy.
Malaysia has defended its move to extradite Mun Chol Myong, saying it was carried out only after all legal processes had been exhausted. A top court ruled Mun can be extradited after rejecting his appeal on grounds that the US charges were politically motivated.
Mun, who lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019, has denied US accusations that he was involved in supplying luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions while working in Singapore.
He denied laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to his country.
A bus carrying staff of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur leaves the embassy compound on Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
The North Korean flag and a plaque were taken down from the country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the gates were chained up. (Photo: AFP/Aliff Nor)
North Korea has long used Malaysia as a crucial economic hub where it handled trade, labour exports and some illicit businesses in Southeast Asia, but their relations suffered major setbacks over the 2017 killing of Kim Jong Nam.
Two women - one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese - were charged with colluding with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX nerve agent. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia the day Kim died. The two women were later released.
Malaysian officials never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kim Jong Nam’s death, but prosecutors made it clear throughout the trial that they suspected a North Korean connection.
North Korea denied the victim was Kim Jong Nam and disputed it had any role in the man’s death. Longtime North Korea watchers believe Kim Jong Un ordered his brother’s killing as part of efforts to remove potential rivals and cement his grip on power.
The North Korean flag and embassy signage have been removed from the premises in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Two buses ferried the diplomats and their families to the airport, where they were seen checking in for a flight to Shanghai.
Ties between North Korea and Malaysia have been virtually frozen since the 2017 assassination of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Two days after Kuala Lumpur extradited a North Korean man to the US to face money laundering charges, a furious North Korea on Friday announced that it was terminating ties with Malaysia. Malaysia denounced the decision and, in a tit-for-tat response, gave North Korean diplomats 48 hours to leave.
Kim Yu Song (centre) counsellor at the North Korean embassy in Malaysia, reads out a statement outside the embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
North Korean embassy counsellor Kim Yu Song carries a box inside the compounds of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Aliff Nor)
Kim Yu Song, the charge d’affaires and counsellor in Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysia had “committed an unpardonable crime". Echoing Pyongyang's earlier statement, he accused Malaysia of being subservient to the US and of being part of a US conspiracy aimed at “isolating and suffocating" his country.
“This incident made by the Malaysian authority constitutes an undisguised alignment with and direct engagement in the anti-DPRK hostile manoeuvre of the United States which seeks to deprive our state of its sovereignty and rights to existence and development," he said in a short statement outside the embassy, before heading to the airport.
"Not content with putting our innocent citizen in the dock by blindly (favouring) with the US – the principal enemy of our state – the Malaysian authority delivered our citizen to the US in the end, thus destroying the entire foundation of the bilateral relations based on the respect for sovereignty."
"The Malaysian authority will bear full responsibility for all the consequences to be incurred between the two countries," he added.
North Korea has called the money laundering charges an “absurd fabrication and (a) sheer plot” orchestrated by the US, and warned Washington will “pay a due price".
Some experts say cutting ties with Malaysia was North Korea's way of showing anger with President Joe Biden's administration, without jeopardising an eventual return to nuclear negotiations with Washington.
North Korea has insisted it would not engage in talks with Washington unless it abandons what Pyongyang’s perceives as a “hostile” policy. But experts say North Korea will eventually seek to return to diplomacy to find ways to get sanctions relief and revive its moribund economy.
Malaysia has defended its move to extradite Mun Chol Myong, saying it was carried out only after all legal processes had been exhausted. A top court ruled Mun can be extradited after rejecting his appeal on grounds that the US charges were politically motivated.
Mun, who lived in Malaysia for a decade and was arrested in May 2019, has denied US accusations that he was involved in supplying luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions while working in Singapore.
He denied laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to his country.
A bus carrying staff of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur leaves the embassy compound on Sunday, Mar 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
The North Korean flag and a plaque were taken down from the country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the gates were chained up. (Photo: AFP/Aliff Nor)
North Korea has long used Malaysia as a crucial economic hub where it handled trade, labour exports and some illicit businesses in Southeast Asia, but their relations suffered major setbacks over the 2017 killing of Kim Jong Nam.
Two women - one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese - were charged with colluding with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX nerve agent. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia the day Kim died. The two women were later released.
Malaysian officials never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kim Jong Nam’s death, but prosecutors made it clear throughout the trial that they suspected a North Korean connection.
North Korea denied the victim was Kim Jong Nam and disputed it had any role in the man’s death. Longtime North Korea watchers believe Kim Jong Un ordered his brother’s killing as part of efforts to remove potential rivals and cement his grip on power.
