NORTH Korea first grabbed Malaysian public’s attention when the current leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was murdered purportedly by North Korean agents at klia2.
The little-known North Korean activities in Malaysia were then brought to the surface, a majority of them cultural, such as tourism, art, trade, businesses, and education. The honorary doctorate award conferred on Jong-un by a private university here raised some eyebrows in 2013, but many did not link it to the fact that children of North Korean diplomat and businessmen were studying there.
The president of the university believed that education could assert positive influence on North Korea’s youth. By allowing them to participate in an international learning environment, they could be normalised into modern society.
This same philosophy is held by almost all Asean member states. As my friend Sarah Teo from RSIS Singapore explains, Asean is playing an important role in socialising North Korea. All Asean member states enjoy diplomatic relations with both North and South Korea, a phenomenon that is rare outside of Southeast Asia.
North Korea first reached out to Malaysia through its overseas missions and embassies where North Korean diplomatic representatives met with Malaysian ambassadors and expressed intention to establish diplomatic relations. After Wisma Putra conducted a study on the country and the Korean Peninsula issues, former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein decided to agree to North Korea’s proposal to establish diplomatic relations.
While tabled in Parliament in early 1973, Lim Kit Siang questioned the rationale of establishing ties with North Korea, to which Tun Razak responded that we should accept all countries that respect each other’s sovereignty, sharing common belief in peace and stability, and interest in expanding economic ties.
After ties were formally established in June 1973, Malaysia-North Korea ties developed steadily. Malaysia is one of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) members that supported North Korea’s membership. North Korea’s non-aligned diplomacy worked well and eventually other non-Communist Southeast Asian countries established ties with North Korea throughout the 1970s.
The exchange of friendly delegations was proposed by the late Kim Il-sung in his letter to Tun Razak as a way to strengthen bilateral relations after setting up the North Korean mission in Kuala Lumpur.
One of the earliest visits by North Koreans to Malaysia was the friendly table tennis matches with the Malaysian team. The North Korean Cultural Troupe held performances in Singapore and then Kuala Lumpur. Over time, friendly football matches replaced table tennis. What triggered the travel ban on Malaysians traveling to North Korea was the invitation by North Korea to Johor’s football team to Pyongyang for a pre-Asian Cup friendly match — the invite had bypassed the then federal government.
Malaysia watched closely its neighbours’ interactions with North Korea. Among the news clippings on North Korea in the Foreign Ministry’s archives is North Korea’s US$10.5 million purchase of Thailand’s agricultural and mineral products in 1978.
Trade negotiations began since 1975, and the first agreement was signed in 1979 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the deputy prime minister and minister of trade. It was also the year Dr Mahathir first met with Il-sung, and as history would have it, Dr Mahathir was the main architect of Malaysia-North Korea relations.
The relationship flourished — when North Korea suffered from famine and drought, Malaysia provided humanitarian aid in the form of medical supplies and food; and, when North Korea struggled economically in the 1990s, Dr Mahathir instructed the Malaysian museum authority to build a rice museum (Kedah Paddy Museum). Mansudae Art Studio artists were employed for the project, painting panoramas of Malaysian sceneries, national leadership, and the impressive 360 degree-view of the paddy state. In Klang Valley, North Korean arts contributions can be found at Zoo Negara, places of worships, memorials, and the likes.
Tourism is also a well-developed cooperation, with a Malaysian private tour company collaborating with the North Korea Tourism Board to promote tour packages. The packages include specialised trips, for example, for photography professionals, artists, and the likes. Many Malaysians and Singaporeans who had visited North Korea took a special liking to the country, and would return for more.
There exists groups of people believing in the positive aspects of the country, and who wish the world could see past its nuclear and missile development programmes.
The Kim Jong-nam assassination had tarnished the impression a little, but perhaps piqued more public curiosity in North Korea.
People shifted blame for the outcome of the incident partially on former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s mismanagement. Dr Mahathir had criticised Najib’s policy towards North Korea during the diplomatic crisis, and now is more than ready to resume diplomatic relations with North Korea when the time is right.
The second Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi did not yield a positive outcome as many pundits had anticipated. But having Singapore and Vietnam, two Southeast Asian countries to host the peace talks on one of the most crucial global issues from East Asia, shows there are potentials to be explored, whether it’s diplomatic or economic, or even institutional platforms.
There is space for Malaysia to play a role in the North Korean issue. Dr Mahathir could, perhaps, respond to South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in’s New Southern Policy (NSP) which aims at fostering closer relations with Southeast Asian countries, and offer to contribute to Moon’s peace policy. Dr Mahathir’s New Look East Policy could complement NSP’s three pillars — prosperity, people, and peace.
Asean, on the other hand, could contribute to inter-Korean economic engagement, people-to-people exchanges, and continue to utilise the Asean Regional Forum or even come up with a new Asean Plus the Two Koreas as a platform to continue conciliation efforts, assisted by friendly nations.
The above vision may be ambitious, but it could offset the risks of great power shortfall in the denuclearisation negotiation, so the goodwill dialogue can be continued without interference from the big powers.
The writer is Senior Lecturer, Strategic Studies and International Relations, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)