Kuala Lumpur, Feb 15: Malaysian police hunted the killers of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader today as they tried to unravel the Cold War-style assassination which the South said was carried out by two female agents.
Pathologists in Kuala Lumpur were examining the body of Kim Jong-Nam for clues to how he died, as South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers he “strongly suspected” he had been poisoned.
CCTV images from the airport that emerged in Malaysian media of one of the suspects showed an Asian woman wearing a white top with the letters “LOL” emblazoned on the front.
The assassination, which analysts said could have been ordered over reports the dead man was readying to defect, illustrates the “brutal and inhumane” nature of the isolated regime, South Korea said.
If proved, the killing would be the highest-profile death on young leader Kim Jong-Un’s watch since the 2013 execution of his uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, in a country with a long record of meting out brutal deaths.
South Korea’s spy chief Lee Byung-Ho said the two women struck on Monday morning as Kim was readying to board a flight to Macau where he has spent many years in exile.
Malaysian police said Kim, a portly 45-year-old, was walking through the departure hall at Kuala Lumpur International Airport when he was attacked.
“He told the receptionist... someone had grabbed his face from behind and splashed some liquid on him,” Selangor state’s criminal investigation chief Fadzil Ahmat was reported as saying by Malaysia’s The Star newspaper.
“He asked for help and was immediately sent to the airport’s clinic. At this point, he was experiencing headache and was on the verge of passing out,” said Fadzil.
“At the clinic, the victim experienced a mild seizure. He was put into an ambulance and was being taken to the Putrajaya Hospital when he was pronounced dead,” he said. The head of Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s forensics department, Mohamad Shah Mahmood, was taking part in the autopsy, according to an aide who asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak for the department.
Outside the forensics department, a black Jaguar sedan bearing the North Korean flag pulled up on Wednesday afternoon, followed by another vehicle.
Two men who emerged from the vehicles declined to speak to waiting media as they entered the building.
“The investigation is in progress. It covers everything including hunting down the possible suspects,” Abdul Samah Mat, chief of police of Selangor state which surrounds the capital, told AFP.
Kim had at one time been set to assume the leadership of his isolated country, but fell out of favour after an embarrassing attempt to get into Japan on a fake passport in 2001.
He has since lived in exile, mostly in the gambling haven of Macau, but he has also been spotted in other Asian countries and is believed to have enjoyed some protection from Chinese security forces.
Woman with Vietnam passport held for NKorea killing: Malaysia
: A woman carrying a Vietnamese passport was arrested today in connection with the assassination of a half-brother of North Korea’s leader, Malaysia’s police chief said. Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement she was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The victim, killed Monday at the airport, has been identified by rival South Korea as Kim Jong-Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un.
Khalid said the arrested woman had a Vietnamese passport in the name of Doan Thi Huong born on May 31, 1988.
The suspect was “positively identifed from the CCTV footage at the airport and was alone at the the time of arrest,” Khalid added.
