After the Kim Jong-nam assassination, Malaysia’s visa-free deal with North Korea looks all but dead.
KUALA LUMPUR — North Korea’s tourism office in Kuala Lumpur sits behind heavy wooden doors. The entrance is secured by two big steel padlocks.
According to a well-placed source within the building, the tenants of the DPR Korea Tourism left the office around the time of the alleged assassination of Kim Jong-nam. The source, who asked not to be named, said it’s unclear where they went and when or if they’ll be back.
The shuttered tourism office is not the only sign around Malaysia’s capital that what little travel there was from Malaysia to the DPRK is slumping, regardless of the mysterious airport murder. The tourism office lists 12 “accredited” travel agencies on its website. Of ten in Kuala Lumpur, only two still list DPRK travel packages online.
At one of those agencies, Malaysia Harmony Tour and Travel S/B , a representative politely declined to talk. An employee at Z. G. Nan Fang Holidays would only say that they stopped selling those packages last year.
Understandably, it’s a sensitive time to discuss travel packages to a country whose government is widely believed to have killed one its own people with VX nerve agent in your public airport.
