Malaysia will reopen its Pyongyang embassy in 2020, the country's foreign minister announced Thursday, following its partial closure in the wake of a North Korean-orchestrated assassination in a Kuala Lumpur airport almost three years ago.

A primary reason for the reopening is to “encourage” North Korean engagement with the U.S. and others, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said during a press conference in Moscow alongside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.