With last Monday’s coma death in the United States of American Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old student held captive for 17 months in North Korea for alleged theft of a propaganda poster, many have asked whether Malaysia’s recent experience in dealing with the despotic North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un could have been an eye opener for Washington.

After the North Korean-ordered assassination of Jong-un’s half-brother, Jong-nam (photo) at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport three months ago, Malaysia faced a diplomatic impasse with North Korea as it hesitated - for some time - to return the body of the victim to North Korea, with Pyongyang prohibiting Malaysian Embassy staff marooned in the North Korean capital from returning home.

“How did the Malaysian Government finally settle with the North Koreans and get its diplomatic staff freed? The (Trump) administration could have learned from the Malaysian experiences and tried to apply, where possible, those experienced,” one participant told Bernama on the sidelines of a well-attended discussion event organised at the Asia Society in New York on the ‘Crisis on the Korean Peninsula’ on Monday.

The event featured high-profile Korean politicians such as Ro-Myung Gong, former Korean foreign minister Chung-in Moon, special advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on unification and national security affairs, Daniel Russel, former Assistant Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) in the Obama administration and currently senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and Sue Mi Terry, managing director for Korea at the Bower Group Asia, and a former senior analyst at the CIA.

- Bernama