Ahead of North Korea's summit with the US, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says that Malaysia should be more welcoming of the rogue state's recent attempts to break out of its isolationist policies.

“We used to think of North Korea as a very belligerent country that does not care for the rest of the world.

“But today, he (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) is making efforts to establish relations with even the US.

“We should not be cynical about that. We should try to make full use of this new attitude by North Korea,” he said, during a session at the Nikkei Conference in Tokyo today.

The prime minister arrived in Japan yesterday for the two-day conference, also called the 24th International Conference on the Future of Asia.

Reducing tensions

At the conference, Mahathir said capitalising on this “new attitude” would be able to reduce tensions in Southeast Asia and the South China Sea.

The rogue state’s recent overtures to the US involved a historic meeting with South Korean president Moon Jae-In in April – with Kim becoming the first North leader to step on South soil since the end of the Korean War.

Moon met Kim again last month as a series of diplomatic flip-flops threatened to derail the summit with US president Donald Trump.

The summit is expected to take place in Singapore tomorrow.

'Don't focus on Jong Nam'

Mahathir also noted that while many want to focus on the murder of Kim’s estranged brother, Kim Jong Nam, in Malaysia, Mahathir said he was far more interested in Pyongyang’s friendlier attitude.

“I must say that killing people is sometimes practised by other countries also, not just North Korea.

“So these things are bound to happen, but to condemn a country because this happened would mean that we will be unfriendly with most countries in the world,” he said.

On Feb 13, 2016, Jong Nam was murdered with a deadly nerve agent at the KLIA.

The crime was allegedly carried out by two women who claimed to be under the impression that were carrying out a prank for a TV show. Their trial is still ongoing.

After North Korea's missile tests in September last year, the government barred barred Malaysians from travelling to the county.

"This decision is taken in view of the escalation of tensions in the Korean Peninsula and related developments arising from missile tests," Wisma Putra had said.