N. Korean arrested in killing

First autopsy of Kim Jong Un’s half brother inconclusive

A police officer closes a gate Saturday outside the hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where a second autopsy was to be performed on North Korean Kim Jong Nam.
A police officer closes a gate Saturday outside the hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where a second autopsy was to be performed on North Korean Kim Jong Nam.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A man from North Korea was arrested in Malaysia in the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader's half brother, as a diplomatic dispute started over the body.

Saying the first autopsy had been inconclusive, Malaysian authorities said they would perform a second postmortem to try to ascertain what killed Kim Jong Nam, who was sprayed with liquid in an attack at Kuala Lumpur airport and who died en route to the hospital.

In the latest development in what South Korean officials have described as the assassination of Kim Jong Un's estranged half brother, a 46-year-old North Korean man was arrested about 10 p.m. Friday in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur.

He was carrying an "I-Kad", an official identification card issued to foreign workers, that said he was Ri Jong Chol, a citizen of North Korea, according to a statement from Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector-general of the Royal Malaysian Police.

Two women arrested last week and accused of carrying out the attack -- one Vietnamese, the other Indonesian -- led police to Ri, according to local news reports that cited police sources.

His arrest will heighten suspicions that Kim Jong Un, the 33-year-old leader of North Korea, ordered the assassination of his older half-brother to remove a potential rival to his power.

Police are still looking for three other "foreign" men suspected of masterminding the attack.

Kim Jong Nam, who had lived outside North Korea for about 15 years, was at Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday morning to check in for a flight to Macau, where he had a home and a family, when he was ambushed by two women who applied some kind of liquid to his face.

He sought help but died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, while the two women reportedly escaped in a taxi driven by a Malaysian man, who has also been arrested.

According to reports, the Vietnamese woman, identified as 29-year-old Doan Thi Hoang, told police that she was tricked into taking part in the attack, which she said she thought was a prank.

Indonesian newspapers offered a similar explanation for the other woman arrested, 25-year-old Siti Aishah. One news outlet reported that she was approached by a mysterious man at the Kuala Lumpur nightclub and offered $100 to be involved in a "prank" that was rehearsed in the airport.

Local officials have said that it is still too early to conclude that foreign agents had killed Kim Jong Nam as the investigation into the complicated case was ongoing, but South Korea's intelligence chief had squarely laid the blame on Kim Jong Un, who he said had issued a "standing order" to have his half-brother killed.

The results of the autopsy have not been released publicly, but a Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigation said the results were inconclusive and that there was a second autopsy Friday night. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Malaysian police official Abdul Samah Mat, however, denied that the second autopsy had taken place.

The North Korean ambassador to Malaysia spoke to reporters outside the hospital morgue late Friday.

In his first public statement on the case, Kang Chol said North Korea would "categorically reject" the results of the autopsy, which he said was performed over its objections and with its officials excluded. He called for the body, whose identity he did not mention, to be released immediately.

Because Kim Jong Nam was traveling on a diplomatic passport -- he had four of them -- he was under North Korea's consular protection, Kang said.

Using language usually reserved for enemies rather than relatively friendly Malaysia, Kang said the Malaysian government was acting on the orders of South Korea to "conceal something."

North Korea would "respond strongly to the moves of the hostile forces toward us with their intent to besmirch the image of our republic, by politicizing this incident" and would sue Malaysia in an international court, he said.

Earlier Friday, Malaysian police said that the body would not be handed over to the North Korean Embassy until a family member could supply a matching DNA sample.

Malaysia is seeking DNA samples from Kim Jong Nam's immediate family. He is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau.

Malaysia is one of just a handful of countries to have full diplomatic ties with North Korea, with each country having an embassy in the other's capital. Malaysia has also been a key place for quiet, semi-official "track 2" diplomatic talks between North Korea and the United States.

In the U.S., the apparent assassination is strengthening bipartisan calls to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation lifted nine years ago. Doing so would increase the country's isolation, while potentially complicating any future diplomacy to halt its nuclear and missile programs.

To re-impose the designation on North Korea, the secretary of state would have to determine that it has "repeatedly" provided support for acts of international terrorism.

House lawmakers are pushing for a fresh review of the evidence. Kim Jong Nam's death could make the case more persuasive, as it compounds the impression of North Korea acting with impunity.

"We should never have taken North Korea off the state sponsor of terrorism list," Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California told a congressional hearing Thursday.

"The murder once again highlights the treachery of North Korea," Sen. Cory Gardner , R-Colo., told The Associated Press in an interview. He said there is evidence of North Korean "actions and relationships that would meet the criteria of state sponsor of terror."

Information for this article was contributed by Anna Fifield of The Washington Post; and by Eileen Ng, Tim Sullivan and Matthew Pennington of The Associated Press.

A Section on 02/19/2017

Upcoming Events