YOURSAY | ‘We are relieved that our citizens in North Korea managed to return safe and sound.’

N Korean murder suspects sent home with Jong-nam's body

Vijay47: By and large, Malaysians would be glad that at least one sorry aspect of this miserable episode has been brought to a close with the return of the Malaysians from Pyongyang.

But please bear with me if I don't start singing praises for PM Najib Abdul Razak and Foreign Minister Anifah Aman for their heroic roles in settling this matter.

At first, we had a body, two principal suspects, and four possible suspects. Now, no body, no possible suspects, but we can still lay claim to two bewildered ladies.

I can understand that when the lives of citizens are at stake, some compromise has to be made. But why were the four ‘other’ suspects allowed to leave when they did not carry any diplomatic status which could have been employed for immunity?

Where is that inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar with all his tough guy talk? At the end of the day, we had someone killed openly in a crowded airport and the entire matter was conveniently closed. Agatha Christie couldn't have done it better.

Anonymous 2362021442199789: In hindsight, it was rather dumb to kick out the DPRK (North Korea) Ambassador Kang Chol before evacuating all Malaysians and our embassy staff.

We shot ourselves in the foot and were left holding a decaying corpse, some DPRK citizens and embassy staff who were in no hurry to leave anyway.

And after all that sabre-rattling and thumping of the collective chests, we meekly agree to comply with the DPRK’s demands to send back the corpse and all the remaining murder suspects as well as any remaining DPRK nationals still in the country.

Thus, we are left with two non-DPRK women alleged to be assassins who will have their day in court.

Meanwhile, all the other suspects including the mastermind/s were not held to account and quietly sent off. Next, we will have our own spin-masters try to weave a cock and bull story of how we stood united and managed to force the DPRK to release the remaining embassy staff.

In reality, we were negligent in not evacuating them earlier when we had the opportunity.

Kangkung: On March 6, 2017, the IGP said the police will wait "even if it takes five years" for the North Koreans suspects wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Kim Jong-nam to come out of the embassy.

Now, Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) has let all the suspects go and even sent Kim Jong-nam's remains to North Korea just as what the North Korea regime demanded in the very beginning.

So why did we need to go through all this? And now, MO1 is getting credit as the saviour of the Malaysians taken hostage by the North Korea regime.

Chefoo: Barter trading done successfully. One body with three suspects exchanged with nine Malaysians. Laugh Out Loud (LOL). In fact, the Vietnamese suspect already wore that word LOL from day one.

Next, the courts will perhaps release the women due to no witnesses and lack of concrete evidence. LOL again.

Najib’s ‘pussy cat’ diplomacy?

Anonymous 2436471476414726: We are relieved that our citizens in North Korea managed to return to Malaysia safe and sound. But really it did not have to proceed this way had we played our cards right from the beginning.

We wanted to show the world that we are tough. But we forget whom we are dealing with - a rogue nation who fears no one least of all Malaysia.

We growled and snarled like a fierce tiger in the beginning but then North Korea saw through our bluff and showed the world we are just mere pussy cats.

Vent: The patriotism that welled up on the ground among us that Malaysia could take on the rogue nation of North Korea has dissipated with the ‘cowardly’ return of the body.

As usual, it was all false bravado and chest-thumping jingoism. Even the sceptics among us were prepared to come together as Malaysians and give the government the benefit of the doubt.

Determined Sarawakian: Penang CM II P Ramasamy, if it were your loved one, you wouldn't be writing this article. It’s because none of the ‘victims’ are related to you.

Spinnot: Better to be a ‘pussy cat’ and bring back our people safely when you are dealing with that unpredictable ‘supreme leader’.

Vela: This has been one of my fears after MO1's 1MDB fiasco. Every Tom, Dick and Harry can blackmail him (us) into getting their way.

Either by leaking more 1MDB stuff which I am sure North Korea would have, or just added one more messy situation on MO1's plate, which is way too full right now.

That's my biggest issue with it. If one wants to ‘steal’ money - that's fine, justice will come. But don't ‘steal’ money and jeopardise the whole nation.

6th Generation Immigrant: Whatever happened to that unwritten international rule - that no legally elected government should ever negotiate with terrorists.

It seems our "diplomacy and negotiations" have allowed the repatriation of 200 stranded North Koreans, embassy staff, the body of the murdered victim and the three men wanted by PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police) who holed up in the embassy – all in exchange for nine Malaysians?

Najib has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he has a long way to go in dealing with rogue nations or terrorists.

Headhunter: As far as our diplomacy is concerned, we are always looking into the barrel of a gun and getting the short end of the stick. Even when dealing with Singapore, we get short-changed.

Hmmmmmmmm: We seemingly had difficulty handling the Lahad Datu invasion by a ragtag team of soldiers and yet we tried to talk tough to a rogue nation. Now, who has to eat humble pie?

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