KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak denounced North Korea's closure of its borders Tuesday to Malaysians trying to leave the country as a violation of international law, calling it "an abhorrent act, effectively holding our citizens hostage."
North Korea's order prompted Malaysia to issue a retaliatory order, in an escalation in a diplomatic dispute over the killing at the Kuala Lumpur airport of an exiled member of North Korea's ruling family.
Kim Jong Nam, the long-exiled half brother of North Korea's ruler, was killed in a poison attack, Malaysian authorities have said.
Police have been ordered to stop North Koreans from leaving Malaysia "until we are assured of the safety and security of all Malaysians in North Korea," Najib said in a statement.
"I can't think of anything like this" happening for years, Lalit Mansingh, a New Delhi-based scholar and longtime top Indian diplomat, said of North Korea's directive. "This is way out of normal diplomatic practice."
But North Korea has a long history of employing contentious foreign policy.
"It's the North Korean way of doing things -- dramatic intimidating gestures and then waiting for the other side to plead for some concessions," said Leszek Buszynski, a national-security scholar at Australian National University who has written extensively on North Korean diplomacy.
Officials in Kuala Lumpur said there are 11 Malaysians in North Korea: three working at the embassy, two U.N. employees and six family members. About 1,000 North Koreans are believed to be in Malaysia, which until recently was one of the few countries where North Koreans could travel without visas.
Malaysia's investigation into Kim's death has infuriated North Korea, which has dismissed the inquiry as politically motivated and demanded that the body be turned over to North Korea immediately.
North Korea's order came Tuesday morning, when the official Korean Central News Agency said the country was banning Malaysians from leaving "until the safety of the diplomats and citizens of [North Korea] in Malaysia is fully guaranteed through the fair settlement of the case."
North Korea said Malaysia's diplomats and citizens "may work and live normally" during the temporary exit ban.
Malaysia is searching for seven North Korean suspects in connection with Kim's assassination, including a North Korean diplomat. Police say three suspects are believed to be in hiding at the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
National Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said Malaysia would not raid the embassy, which is protected under diplomatic law, but would wait for the suspects to emerge.
"We will wait. We will wait, and if it takes five years, we will wait outside. Definitely somebody will come out," Khalid said.
Malaysian police briefly blocked the embassy gates Tuesday with a pair of police cars, but within hours embassy cars were again freely moving in and out. By late afternoon there were only a pair of Malaysian patrolmen waiting in a police car outside the compound.
Malaysia has not directly accused North Korea of killing Kim, though it has said the two women who poisoned him were recruited by a team of North Koreans. Malaysia says Kim was killed with VX, a nerve agent and banned chemical weapon that causes convulsions and leaves victims unable to breathe. North Korea is widely believed to possess large quantities of chemical weapons, including VX.
Kim, who was in his mid-40s, had lived abroad for years and had reportedly never met younger half brother, North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.
Information for this article was contributed by Tim Sullivan and Hyung-jin Kim of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/08/2017