Two Malaysians working for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) who were stranded in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) amid a diplomatic fallout had left the country, a WFP spokeperson said Thursday.
"WFP confirms that two WFP staff of Malaysian nationality have left the DPRK and arrived in Beijing today," a WFP spokeperson confirmed to Xinhua in a written reply.
"The staff members are international civil servants and not representatives of their national government. They work on WFP's programs in the DPRK," the spokesperson said.
In tit-for-tat moves this week, Malaysia and the DPRK have expelled the ambassador of the other's side and banned each other's citizens from leaving, as investigations into the death of a DPRK man in Malaysia strained bilateral relations.