Kuala Lumpur // Malaysian police have arrested a North Korean man over the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half brother, as relations between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur nosedived over a battle for his body.
A 46-year-old was arrested on Friday evening with documents that identified him as North Korean citizen Ri Jong-chol, police said on Saturday. He is the first person from the North Korea to be detained over the killing of its leader’s sibling.
Kim Jong-nam died after an unidentified liquid was sprayed in his face at Kuala Lumpur international airport on Monday, in an attack Seoul says was carried out by female agents on the orders of Pyongyang.
Malaysian police have already arrested a woman with a Vietnamese passport, an Indonesian woman and a Malaysian man. Police in Indonesia have said the Indonesian woman could have got involved in the murder thinking it was a prank for reality TV.
Jong-nam’s body has been held in a Kuala Lumpur morgue since a post-mortem examination on Wednesday, the results of which could take up to two weeks to come through, Malaysia’s health minister said.
After Malaysia ignored demands to return the remains, Pyongyang accused Kuala Lumpur of conspiring with its enemies and said it would reject whatever results came from the post-mortem examination.
“The Malaysian side forced the post-mortem without our permission and witnessing. We will categorically reject the result of the post-mortem conducted unilaterally excluding our attendance,” the North Korean ambassador told reporters outside the morgue on Friday.
Ambassador Kang Chol’s comments were the first official remarks from North Korea since the killing, while its state media have remained silent on the murder.
The ambassador said he had met Malaysian police to demand the release of the body but was refused.
“They are colluding with the hostile forces towards us who are desperate to harm us of malice,” he said, suggesting South Korea was trying to defame the North in a bid to distract from a corruption scandal at home.
Malaysia’s top health official said on Saturday that the government was “not bothered” by the complaint and that Pyongyang would have to wait as long as it took for the autopsy report to be published.
“Normally it will take about two weeks to find out what was the cause of death. Until we find something conclusive we will not be able to release the report,” S Subramaniam said.
Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur enjoyed warm ties until the assassination, with reciprocal visa-free travel for their citizens – an unusual proposition for the reclusive North.
Before the arrest of the North Korean, detectives had detained a 25-year-old Indonesian woman named Siti Aishah and her Malaysian boyfriend, along with a woman carrying a Vietnamese passport that identified her as Doan Thi Huong, 28.
Indonesian police chief Tito Karnavian said he had information from Malaysia that Ms Aishah was tricked into thinking she was simply taking part in pranks for a TV show.
“Probably she was just used – she did not realise it was an assassination attempt,” he said.
Jong-nam was killed as he was preparing to take a flight to Macau. Malaysian police say the 45-year-old was jumped by two women who squirted a liquid in his face. He reported suffering from a headache and was taken to the airport clinic grimacing in pain, according to CCTV footage from the airport.
The older half-brother of North Korea’s leader was once thought to be the natural successor to his father, but on Kim Jong-il’s death in 2011 the succession went to Kim Jong-un, who was born to the former leader’s third wife.
Reports of purges and executions have emerged from the current regime as Kim Jong-un tries to strengthen his grip on power in the face of international pressure over nuclear and missile programmes.
China, the North’s only major ally, said on Saturday that it would suspend all imports of coal from North Korea for the rest of the year, depriving Pyongyang of a crucial source of foreign exchange.
The Chinese commerce ministry said the suspension was in accordance with UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes and would come into force on Sunday.
The decision came less than a week after North Korea’s latest missile test, as tensions escalate over the reclusive state’s defiance of UN resolutions.
* Agence France-Presse