North Korea announced on Friday that it broke diplomatic ties with Malaysia after the country extradited a North Korean citizen to the United States to face money laundering charges. 

According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA), Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry announced a total severance of diplomatic relations with Malaysia for "forcibly delivering" an "innocent citizen" to the U.S. on Wednesday.

It warned that the U.S. will "pay a due price" as the "backstage manipulator and main culprit of this incident." 

Early this month, Malaysia's top court ruled that a North Korean man, Mun Chol-myong, could be extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges.  

The North Korean man had been arrested in 2019 after the United States accused him of laundering funds through front companies and supplying prohibited luxury items from Singapore to Pyongyang in violation of UN sanctions.

[Photo : YONHAP News]