N Korea expels Malaysian envoy over airport killing

Pyongyang

NORTH Korea said on Monday it would expel Malaysia's ambassador in a tit-for-tat move after Pyongyang's envoy left the South-east Asian nation in an increasingly bitter row over the assassination of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

"The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK (North Korea) notifies that the Malaysian ambassador to the DPRK is labelled as a persona non grata... and demanded that the ambassador leave the DPRK," state news agency KCNA said, giving a 48-hour deadline.

Malaysia had earlier recalled its envoy to Pyongyang for consultations as the two countries traded barbs over an investigation into the killing of the North Korean leader's half-brother last month.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak rebuked North Korea on Monday as his government expelled its envoy for casting doubt over the impartiality of the investigation into the murder last month of the North Korean leader's estranged half brother. If North Korean agents did kill Kim Jong Nam, as US officials and South Korean intelligence suspect, the decision to assassinate him on Malaysian soil could cost the isolated, nuclear-armed state one of the few friends that it ha…