Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein tweeted that all Malaysian diplomats in North Korea had returned after the embassy’s operations were suspended in 2017. Experts say North Korea is taking a tough stance over the extradition because it sees it as a pressure tactic against the North. Nam said North Korea also likely worries that similar cases involving North Korean nationals could occur in other Southeast Asian countries. North Korea and Malaysia established diplomatic ties in 1973, but their relations suffered major setbacks over the 2017 killing of Kim Jong Nam. North Korea denied the victim was Kim Jong Nam and disputed it had any role in the man’s death.