Three North Koreans wanted for questioning in the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of their country’s leader were believed to be returning home with the coffin of the victim on Friday after Malaysia agreed a swap deal with the reclusive state.
Photographs obtained by Reuters from Japan’s Kyodo news agency show Hyon Kwang Song, the second secretary at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and Kim Uk Il, a staff member of North Korea’s state airline Air Koryo were on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Thursday evening.
The pictures match those released by the Malaysian police earlier. The coffin carrying the body of Kim Jong Nam was also believed to have been on the same flight, though this has not been confirmed by authorities.
Malaysian media reported that a third North Korean, Ri Ji U, also known as James, who had been hiding with them at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur was also allowed to go home.
The three men and the coffin were expected to be transferred to a flight to Pyongyang.
Malaysian authorities released Kim’s body on Thursday, in a deal that secured the release of nine Malaysian citizens held in Pyongyang after a drawn out diplomatic spat.
Kim Jong Nam was killed in Kuala Lumpur International airport on Feb.13 in a bizarre assassination using VX nerve agent, a chemical so lethal that it is on a U. N. list of weapons of mass destruction.
Malaysian prosecutors have charged two women – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – with killing him, but they are regarded by South Korean and U. S. officials as pawns in an operation carried out by North Korean agents.
North Korea’s young, unpredictable leader, Kim Jong Un, had issued a “standing order” for his elder half-brother’s assassination, and there was a failed attempt in 2012, according to some South Korean lawmakers.
Malaysian police had named eight North Koreans they wanted to question in the case, including the three believed to have been given safe passage to leave Malaysia.
Of the others, police believe four fled Malaysia on the same day as the murder and another was held for a week before being released due to insufficient evidence.
