This is lovely except for annoying US TSA agent who harass you everytime they swipe your passport and it shows thay you have been to blacklist countries like Pakistan, Iran, DPRK, Cuba, etc. I live and work in the US with a Danish passport, and when my passport had a stamp from Cuba, Venezuela (among others, also went to El Savador, Columbia, Costa Rica and Honduras) I keep getting sent to the isolation/interrogation room when I enter the US.
Have literally missed domestic connecting flights because of this. They keep asking what I did in Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia and it had gotten so bad that I carry my hiking pictures on my travel document because there is 50/50 shot everytime I reenter the US that I got sent to the TSA interrogation room.
I've finally gotten so sick of it that I pretend to lose my passport and requested a new passport from the Danish embassy. The I-94 system in the US keep track of all the countries you enter/depart based on your passport number. If you burn/lost your passport then your travel history is refreshed.
I even understand if they want to take me to interrogation room if I legitimately just flew from these countries. My situation was that I went to vacation in Central America ONCE. I've flown back and forth between US and Denmark like 10x since, you would think if I'm a Sandinista agent I would have done the crime by now.
Everytime, same moronic robotic list of questions. What were you doing in Cuba/Venezuela in 2009 (vacation, hiking, drinking), did you had assistance or meet with govt official (no), have you been arrested in the US for drug related charges (you can look up my records yourself, you goddamn moron, the answer is always no)
The most annoying thing is not even the questions themselves, but they take you to this wait room, take your phone so you cannot listen to music or anything, and usually people have to wait 30-60 minutes. If you don't have non-electronic media then you are shit out of luck, you have to stare at a wall for the wait period while listening to TSA agent questioning and harassing poor passengers in front of the queue. Usually I was only interviewed for like 10 minutes, but it is just a giant waste of time and taxpayer money for everyone involved, why don't these people actually stop a terror attack for once.
It makes me very sad that Romania is not included in the visa free group when i think about what great relations used to exist between us and the DPRK once upon a time... 1989 was truly the worst year in modern history.
The colour for Malaysia is outdated. North Korea-Malaysia diplomatic relations were cordial in the past but worsened in 2017 after the assassination of Kim Jong-nam in 2017 in KLIA. Relationships soured further in 2021 after Malaysia expedited a North Korean businessman to the US in contradiction to north Korean wishes.
It is important to note however the Malaysian establishment is in favour of positive diplomatic relations with North Korea. Friendly relations is especially advocated by Mahathir, a member of the traditional Malay-Muslim ascendant national bourgeoisie that governed as PM from 1981-2003 and 2018-2020. He did leave remarks that he wanted to improve relations with North Korea when he was in power. However after the Sheraton move, and subsequently 2 governent reshuffles and the 2022 election, diplomatic relations with North Korea is stuck in limbo without any sign of change in the short term.
In terms of national ideology and foreign policy, North Korea and Malaysia have more in common than differences. To speak of it in a Malaysian perspective, Malaysia was one of the first member of ASEAN to normalize relations with communist countries. Despite being a middle-power state, it has more than 111 diplomatic missions in 85 countries, with a passport holding visa-free travel through 168 territories.
Although the current circumstances is unfortunate, I don't doubt that eventually Malaysia-North Korea relations will warm up again - especially with the decline of US-led Western hegemony.
Personally, this whole situation is a bit saddening as I did plan to visit North Korea one day - and tour guide prices weren't too pricey (when they were running).
I live in the US, so I'm spoon fed bullshit about NK and can't trust Google searches to save my life. What was the real situation surrounding Kim Jong-nam?
I ask myself this alot, and I'd be curious to know the "truth" as well. But from what I can gather, Kim Jong-nam was a stooge and a traitor, selling secrets and clandestinely meeting with the CIA