Days after his apparent assassination, Kim Jong Nam’s body remained under guard in a Malaysian morgue Friday, with no one in his immediate family stepping forward on behalf of a man who lived in fear of his half brother, the powerful and mercurial ruler of North Korea.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Days after his apparent assassination, Kim Jong Nam’s body remained under guard in a Malaysian morgue Friday, with no one in his immediate family stepping forward on behalf of a man who lived in fear of his half brother, the powerful and mercurial ruler of North Korea.
South Korea was quick to accuse its enemies in North Korea of dispatching a hit squad to kill Kim Jong Nam at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, saying two female assassins poisoned him and then fled in a taxi.
THIRD PERSON ARRESTED IN KILLING OF KIM JONG UN’S HALF-BROTHER
Although Kim Jong Nam is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau, police in Malaysia say none has come forward to claim the body or provide DNA samples in the aftermath of what appeared to be a well-executed hit.
North Korean diplomats in Malaysia have requested custody of Kim Jong Nam’s body, arguing that he had a North Korean passport. The officials objected to the autopsy, but Malaysian authorities went ahead with the procedure anyway because they did not receive a formal complaint.
This image provided by Star TV on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, of closed circuit television footage from Monday, Feb 13, 2017, shows a woman, center in white, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, who police say was arrested Wednesday in connection with the death of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Star TV via AP)
(Star TV)
Investigators were still trying to piece together details of the case, and South Korea has not said how it concluded that North Korea was behind the killing.
Malaysian police were questioning three suspects — two women and a man — and waiting for autopsy results that could shed light on why Kim Jong Nam suddenly fell ill at the airport as he waited for a flight home to Macau.
Dizzy and in pain, he told medical workers at the airport he had been sprayed with a chemical. Within two hours, Malaysian officials said, he was dead.
Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, had lived in exile for years and was estranged from his younger half brother, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He reportedly fell out of favor in 2001, when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
