SEOUL, South Korea — The bitter diplomatic dispute between North Korea and Malaysia over the poisoning death of leader Kim Jong-un’s estranged half-brother escalated dramatically Tuesday, with Pyongyang saying it had banned Malaysians from leaving North Korea.

That was followed quickly by Malaysia saying North Korean embassy staff were barred from leaving its country. Malaysia had already expelled the North Korean ambassador on Monday.

The North’s Foreign Ministry told the Malaysian Embassy in Pyongyang that it would temporarily ban the exit of Malaysian citizens now in the North, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

It said the exit ban will be valid “until the safety of the diplomats and citizens of (North Korea) in Malaysia is fully guaranteed through the fair settlement of the case that occurred in Malaysia.”

Malaysia is pursuing several North Korean suspects allegedly involved in the killing, including a diplomat at the North’s Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has not accused the North of being behind the killing of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur’s airport three weeks ago, but South Korean has.

Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister Reezal Marican told reporters at parliament that there are 11 Malaysians in North Korea: Three working at the Malaysian Embassy, two United Nations workers and six family members.

The North said Malaysian diplomats and citizens “may work and live normally under the same conditions and circumstances as before” during the period of the temporary exit ban.

It also said that the Malaysian ambassador would be expelled, although he has already been recalled to Malaysia.

Kim Jong-nam died less than 20 minutes after two women wiped VX nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13, authorities say. The women, one from Vietnam and one from Indonesia, have been charged with murder.

North Korea has denied any role in the killing and accused Malaysia of conspiring with its enemies. North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol rejected a Malaysian autopsy that found Kim was killed with VX, a banned chemical weapon.

On Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the decision to expel Kang sent a clear message.

“It means that we are firm in defending our sovereignty and dignity,” Najib said. “Don’t ever insult our country and don’t try to cause disruptions here.”

Malaysian authorities declared Kang “persona non grata” on Saturday and gave him two days to leave the country. He arrived late Monday afternoon at the Kuala Lumpur airport, where he told reporters that Malaysia was doing “great harm” to the countries’ relations.

Malaysia’s finding that VX killed Kim boosted speculation that North Korea was behind the attack. Experts say the oily poison was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory, and North Korea is widely believed to possess large quantities of chemical weapons, including VX.

North Korea is trying to retrieve Kim’s body, but has not acknowledged that the victim is Kim Jong-un’s half brother, as Malaysian government officials have confirmed.

Ri Tong Il, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations, has said Kim probably died of a heart attack because he suffered from heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said pathologists have ruled that out.

The two women accused of poisoning Kim say they were duped into thinking they were taking part in a harmless prank.

Malaysia is looking for seven North Korean suspects, four of whom are believed to have left the country on the day of the killing. The three others, including an official at the North Korean Embassy and an employee of Air Koryo, North Korea’s national carrier, are believed to still be in Malaysia. </s> North Korea forbade Malaysians from leaving the hermit kingdom on Tuesday, as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate over the murder of Kim Jong Nam.

The North’s foreign ministry issued the interim ban “until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency said, referring to the fatal poisoning of the globetrotting playboy half-brother of Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak blasted North Korea for “effectively holding our citizens hostage” and called an emergency meeting of his National Security Council late Tuesday.

Najib characterized the ban as an “abhorrent act” enacted with “total disregard of all international law and diplomatic norms.”

In retaliation, the prime minister ordered his police force to detain all North Koreans attempting to leave Malaysia until “we are assured of the safety and security of all Malaysians in North Korea.”

There are 11 Malaysians in North Korea, according to a Malaysian foreign ministry official, including three embassy staff, six family members and two others. There are hundreds of North Koreans in Malaysia, the majority of whom are workers and students.

Malaysian authorities want to grill three possible suspects in the Jong Nam slaying hiding out in the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, including a senior North Korean diplomat and a state airline employee. Police have identified a total of eight North Koreans wanted in connection with the murder.

Two women were charged last week with rubbing the lethal nerve agent VX into the face of Jong Nam, causing his agonizing, 20-minute death.

Once friendly neighbors, the relationship between Malaysia and North Korea has become frayed over Jong Nam’s death, with the sides not seeing eye to eye on how to investigate the case.

“You’d have to go back a long way for this kind of wholesale diplomatic meltdown,” said Euan Graham, director of international security at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia.

Graham called it “a classic own goal of North Korea’s making” that was triggered “by the most outrageous public murder than you can image, using a chemical weapon in a crowded international airport.”

Making matters worse, South Korean intelligence officials have accused North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un of orchestrating the assassination of Jong Nam — his estranged half-brother. The officials believe Jong Un saw Jong Nam as a threat to his leadership. </s> North Korea has banned Malaysians inside its country from leaving, in a growing diplomatic row over the killing of Kim Jong-nam.

In response, Malaysia has banned North Korean embassy officials from leaving, saying it “needs to be done”.

The tit-for-tat actions come amid North Korean fury at Malaysia’s investigation into Mr Kim’s death.

Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader, was killed in Malaysia last month.

While Malaysia has not directly blamed the North Korean government for the attack, there is widespread suspicion Pyongyang was responsible.

North Korea has fiercely denied this and has accused Malaysia of mishandling the investigation and colluding with its enemies.

The row over the killing – and over who has the right to claim Mr Kim’s body from the mortuary where it is being held – has rapidly escalated over the past two weeks.

Both Malaysia and North Korea have already expelled each other’s ambassadors, when on Tuesday North Korea announced it was temporarily banning any Malaysians currently in its country from leaving, citing security reasons.

The state news agency KCNA said the ban would stay in place “until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved”, but that Malaysians in the country would be able to carry on their lives as normal.

Hours later, Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi responded by saying North Korean embassy staff and officials would not be allowed to leave.

“We don’t mean to do this, but it needs to be done,” the Malaysia Star quoted him as saying.

“We need to take similar steps as they have manipulated the murder.”

It was not immediately clear how many people would be affected by each of the bans.

A post-mortem examination on Mr Kim’s body found he was killed by a dose of VX nerve agent the most potent of all known chemical weapons, as he waited to board a flight to Macau on 13 February.

So far, only two people – an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman – have been charged with murder.

A detained North Korean was released last week because of lack of evidence, but Malaysia is seeking a number of other North Koreans.

On Tuesday, Malaysia’s police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said he believed two of those suspects were hiding inside the North Korean embassy compound in Kuala Lumpur.

“We will wait and if it takes five years we will wait outside, definitely somebody will come out,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Pyongyang has not yet confirmed that the body is that of Kim Jong-nam, acknowledging him only as a North Korean citizen. Mr Kim was travelling using a passport under a different name. </s> Malaysia And North Korea Are Heading Toward A Complete Diplomatic Breakdown

North Korea announced Tuesday that Malaysian citizens in the country would not be allowed to leave, and Malaysia retaliated by broadening a previous travel ban on North Korean Embassy officials to cover all North Korean citizens in the country.

So, more than three weeks after the half-brother of North Korea's leader was murdered in a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal, the two countries are in a full-blown diplomatic standoff.

As The Two-Way has reported, Kim Jong Nam died on Feb. 13, and his body remains in Malaysia, despite demands by North Korea to release it:

"Malaysia, which was once one of the few countries friendly with North Korea, has had a significant falling out with the hermit kingdom over the death of Kim Jong Nam. Malaysian authorities say Kim was killed with VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon, and they have arrested two women who appeared to accost him in the airport's surveillance footage. "Pyongyang, for its part, disputes this account, saying the man — whom North Korea has not officially recognized as Kim Jong Nam — 'probably died of a heart attack because he suffered from heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.' "The U.S. and South Korean officials attribute Kim's death to North Korean agents."

Following Tuesday's announcement that all Malaysian citizens would be barred from leaving North Korea, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak accused the North Korean government of "effectively holding our citizens hostage," The Guardian reported.

Malaysia has an embassy in Pyongyang. "Malaysia's foreign ministry said it had 11 citizens in North Korea, including three embassy staff, six family members and two others," reported the newspaper. "Neither country has announced how many North Koreans live in Malaysia."

The Associated Press estimated about 1,000 North Koreans in Malaysia were affected by the exit ban.

The Guardian also quoted Malaysia's chief of police as saying that three North Korean nationals wanted in connection with the killing were hiding in the country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur as of Tuesday, and that a North Korean diplomat was among those wanted for questioning in connection with the murder.

The two countries already kicked out each other's ambassadors over the murder — Malaysia first, on Saturday, and then North Korea on Monday, according to The Associated Press (although the Malaysian government had beaten Pyongyang to the punch by recalling their top diplomat back on Feb. 20).

That process, in which each country declared the other's top diplomat persona non grata, is in keeping with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to which both countries are signatories.

However, the new exit bans and criminal investigation involving diplomats are more murky in their legality under the treaty, which guarantees diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution.

Only the sending state can revoke that immunity.

The U.N. convention also states that "the receiving State shall ensure to all members of the mission freedom of movement and travel in its territory," and says specifically that:

Don Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University, told Reuters that he believed the exit ban for Malaysian Embassy staff and their families in Pyongyang was a clear violation of the convention.

The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Malaysia has signed, also explicitly establishes the right of every person "to leave any country." </s> North Korea and Malaysia said Tuesday they have temporarily prohibited each other’s nationals from leaving their countries, as their once-amicable relations further sour following the Feb. 13 murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader.

Local media also reported that Malaysia’s Cabinet will discuss Friday whether to close the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, underscoring that their cozy ties of more than 40 years have become mired in hostility.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it has temporarily banned all Malaysians from departing the country until the issue of the death of one of its citizens in Kuala Lumpur last month is settled in a fair manner.

Pyongyang has not acknowledged that the man killed in an apparent attack with the VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport was Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong Un. The North has instead referred to him as Kim Chol, the name that appeared on a diplomatic passport he was traveling with.

The announcement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the prohibition will be kept in place until the safety of its diplomats and citizens in Malaysia is fully guaranteed through a “fair settlement of the case.”

It said North Korea has already informed the Malaysian Embassy in Pyongyang of its decision.

A Malaysian Foreign Ministry official told reporters that at least 11 people, including three embassy staff, their family members and two U.N. staff, are currently staying in North Korea, while no tourists are currently in the reclusive country.

Later in the day, the Malaysian government also said it has banned North Koreans from leaving the country. Malaysian police have sealed off the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur with yellow tape.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned North Korea’s decision, calling on Pyongyang to immediately release all Malaysians.

“This abhorrent act, effectively holding our citizens hostage, is in total disregard of all international law and diplomatic norms,” he said in a statement.

“Protecting our citizens is my first priority, and we will not hesitate to take all measures necessary when they are threatened,” Najib added.

He said an emergency meeting of the country’s National Security Council had been called, although did not say when this would take place.

Pyongyang has urged Malaysia to settle the case “as early as possible,” while noting that, during the period, all Malaysian citizens in North Korea “may work and live normally under the same conditions and circumstances as before.”

The temporary ban was announced a day after the North Korean ambassador, Kang Chol, who was expelled from Malaysia, arrived in Beijing.

Meanwhile, a North Korean “high-level” delegation, in Malaysia since a week ago to discuss the handling of the incident, was at Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday. Jounalists witnessed members of the delegation preparing to leave for North Korea.

Malaysia, which established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1973 when the anti-Western Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was in power, is one of only a handful of nations with an embassy in Pyongyang.

North Korea and Malaysia opened embassies in each other’s capitals in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and later reached an agreement on reciprocal visa-free visits. In 2009, Malaysia became the first nation to allow visa-free entry for North Korean citizens.

Kim Jong Nam, 45, who criticized North Korea’s hereditary succession of power in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, died after two women smeared the lethal VX agent on his face, Malaysian authorities said.

North Korea has rejected the finding that VX was used in the attack, requesting samples taken by investigators be sent to a global chemical weapons body for analysis. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kim Jong-nam sought help at the airport shortly after his face was smeared with the deadly VX nerve agent

North Korea and Malaysia have banned each other's citizens from leaving their countries, in a growing row over the killing of Kim Jong-nam.

The extraordinary tit-for-tat actions come amid North Korean fury at Malaysia's ongoing investigation into his death at a Kuala Lumpur airport.

The North Korean leader's half-brother was killed with a potent nerve agent.

Malaysia has not directly blamed the North for this, but there is widespread suspicion Pyongyang was responsible.

North Korea has fiercely denied any accusations of culpability and the row over the killing - and who has the right to claim Mr Kim's body - has rapidly escalated over the past two weeks.

Both Malaysia and North Korea have already expelled each other's ambassadors.

What was North Korea's announcement?

The state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday that "all Malaysian nationals in the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] will be temporarily prohibited from leaving the country until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved".

Image copyright AP Image caption Kim Jong-nam was known to frequently travel to Malaysia and had been waiting for a flight to Macau when he was attacked

It said this was to ensure the safety of its citizens and diplomats in Malaysia.

Malaysians in North Korea would be able to carry on their lives as normal, it added.

How did Malaysia respond?

Furiously. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said it was an "abhorrent act" which was "in total disregard of all international law and diplomatic norms".

Malaysians were effectively being held hostage in North Korea, he said in a statement.

"Protecting our citizens is my first priority, and we will not hesitate to take all measures necessary when they are threatened."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kim Jong-nam was poisoned with an extraordinarily potent chemical weapon called VX

Malaysia initially responded by banning North Korean embassy staff and officials from leaving the country.

But Mr Najib later said the ban would extend to all North Koreans.

How many people does this affect?

Malaysian officials have said there are believed to be 11 Malaysian citizens currently in North Korea, mostly diplomats.

They include two Malaysians working with the UN's World Food Programme, the organisation said.

The Malaysian authorities say there are about 1,000 North Koreans currently in Malaysia.

Until last week, North Koreans did not need a visa to enter the country.

Is this legal?

Such actions are highly unusual. Under Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country".

Malaysia has signed that declaration, but North Korea has not.

The ban also breaks the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which both countries have ratified.

Where has the investigation into Kim's death got to?

A post-mortem examination on Mr Kim's body found he was killed by a dose of VX nerve agent, a substance classified as a weapon of mass destruction, as he waited to board a flight to Macau on 13 February.

Image copyright Reuters/AFP Image caption Doan Thi Huong (left) and Siti Aisyah (right) have both been charged with killing Mr Kim

So far, only two people - an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman - have been charged with murder. They have said they thought they were taking part in a TV prank.

A detained North Korean was released last week because of lack of evidence, but Malaysia is seeking a number of other North Koreans, including a diplomat.

On Tuesday, Malaysia's police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said he believed two of those suspects were hiding inside the North Korean embassy compound in Kuala Lumpur.

"We will wait and if it takes five years we will wait outside, definitely somebody will come out," he told reporters.

Armed police have been deployed outside the embassy, cordoning it off, Malaysian media reported.

History of Malaysia-North Korea relations

Malaysia was one of the few countries that had relatively friendly relations with North Korea

Diplomatic ties between the nations were initiated in the 1970s

As trade in resources such as palm oil and steel increased, North Korea eventually established an embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 2003

A former North Korean ambassador to Malaysia, Chang Yong-chol, was executed on Kim Jong-un's orders as part of a purge of the family of his uncle, Chang Song-thaek, who was also the North Korean leader's uncle and was executed in 2013. </s> Malaysia has ordered the North Korean envoy out of the country following the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un. Malaysia said on Saturday it was expelling the North Korean ambassador, escalating a diplomatic row between the two countries over the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un.

Start the conversation, or Read more at CBC News. </s> Malaysia has declared North Korea’s ambassador Kang Chol “persona non grata” and expelled after saying “foreign forces” colluded in the murder of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr Kang, who said Pyongyang “cannot trust” Malaysia’s handling of the investigation, has been asked to leave Malaysia within 48 hours, the latest escalation in the diplomatic row between the two countries.

Kim Jong-am, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was killed on February 13th at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, after two women allegedly smeared his face with the deadly VX nerve agent.

The two women, Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam and Siti Aisyah from Indonesia, were formally charged with murder last week. They both said they thought they were taking part in a TV prank.

Mr Kang had been fiercely critical of Malaysia and accused his host country of coming under the influence of “foreign powers”, a veiled reference to North Korea’s bitter rivals, South Korea.

“It should be recalled that the ambassador has alleged that the conduct of the investigation into the death of a North Korean citizen on February 13th indicates that the Malaysian government had something to hide and that it colluded with outside powers to defame his country,” foreign minister Anifah Haji Aman said.

He said the release of North Korean national Ri Jong-chol due to lack of evidence was proof that the investigation was carried out in an impartial, fair and transparent manner, and Malaysia had demanded an apology from the ambassador, but none was forthcoming.

Malaysian police are seeking several North Koreans, including the second secretary at the embassy, over the death of Kim Jong-nam.

“Malaysia will react strongly against any insults made against it or any attempt to tarnish its reputation.”

Malaysian primemMinister Najib Razak had previously described the comments as “diplomatically rude” and last week Malaysia cancelled visa-free entry for North Koreans entering the country from March 6th.

Malaysia has been one of the few countries friendly to North Korea in the region.

En route back to Pyongyang on Saturday, Ri Jong-chol the deported North Korean, said he and his family had been threatened by Malaysian police to make a confession.

“These men kept telling me to admit to the crime, and if not, my whole family would be killed, and you too won’t be safe. If you accept everything, you can live a good life in Malaysia,” Mr Ri told reporters at Beijing airport on the way back to Pyongyang. “They were plotting to tarnish my country’s reputation.”

Kim Jong-nam was travelling using a diplomatic passport under the name Kim Chol. Pyongyang has not yet confirmed that the body is that of Kim Jong-nam, acknowledging him only as a North Korean citizen. </s> The Malaysian government has expelled North Korea's ambassador after he criticised the investigation into the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of leader Kim Jong Un.

In a statement Malyasia's foreign minister Anifah Aman said a notice was sent to the North Korean Embassy on Saturday informing it that ambassador Kang Chol must leave the country within 48 hours.

He said that earlier in the week, Malaysia demanded North Korea apologise for criticising the investigation into the killing of Kim at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13.

Aman said no apology had come and none appears forthcoming, so Malaysia has decided to expel the ambassador.

Kang had said Malaysia may be "trying to conceal something" and that the autopsy on Kim was carried out "unilaterally and excluding our attendance".
North Korea temporarily bans all Malaysian nationals (estimated to be at least 11 people including embassy employees) from leaving the country amid a growing dispute between the two countries over the death of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong-un. Malaysian official Khairy Jamaluddin calls the move "tantamount to taking hostages".