Japanese owner of ship stuck in Suez Canal apologises

 TOKYO: Shoei Kisen, the Japanese owner of a container ship stuck in the Suez Canal that is holding up potentially billions of dollars of traded goods, apologised today and added that it was working towards a resolution of the situation.

It said getting the ship moving was “extremely difficult”, but that there were no injuries or oil spillage caused by it running aground.

“We sincerely apologise for causing a great deal of concern,” the company said in an English statement more than 24 hours after the grounding.

It said there were 25 crew on board, all of them of Indian nationality.

The ship was fully laden with consumer goods bound for European markets in 20,000 standard shipping containers.

The specialist salvage company in charge of trying to get the ship moving describes it like a “beached whale”.

The 400m container ship has resisted attempts to get it to move off the sandy edge of a narrow portion of the Canal.

The ship wedged against the edge of the Canal after losing control of steering in high winds.

The ship wedged against the edge of the Canal after losing control of steering in high winds. (AP pic)

Why Did North Korea Sever Diplomatic Ties With Malaysia?

 In a peculiar twist last week, North Korea – formally the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – announced that it was severing its diplomatic relations with Malaysia, after Malaysia’s highest court approved the extradition of a North Korean businessman, Mun Chol Myong, to the U.S. to face charges of money laundering. Mun is wanted for laundering funds in violation of United Nations and U.S. sanctions. The Malaysian government in turn expelled North Korean diplomats and severed diplomatic relations in accordance with Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.

Even before this latest episode, Malaysia’s relationship with North Korea was frosty, due to the  assassination of Kim Jong Nam, North Korea’s Premier Kim Jong Un’s estranged brother, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017. Malaysia suspected North Korea had a role in the assassination and subsequently suspended the DPRK’s diplomatic mission.

Prior to that ties between Malaysia and North Korea were relatively benign. Malaysia served as one of key hubs of economic engagement in Southeast Asia, from which North Korea conducted trade with the region, and functioned as an avenue for its engagement with the region via the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). North Korea is also a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), an inclusive multilateral security platform.

Indeed, the DPRK’s ties with Malaysia had mostly served North Korea’s strategic interests well during the two nations’ 48 years of bilateral ties. The U.S. and South Korea have used this geopolitical nexus to communicate with North Korea on security issues and humanitarian aid indirectly via Malaysia and at the sidelines of ARF meetings. South Korea’s own New Southern Policy (NSP), aiming for closer geo-economic cooperation with ASEAN, also has acted as a veiled conduit to the DPRK, hoping that ASEAN will serve as an informal strategic bridge connecting with North Korea.

So why then did North Korea decide to sever its diplomatic relations with an important albeit a cautious strategic player in Southeast Asia?