Kim Jong-nam death: Malaysian police arrest female suspect
Police say they are looking for several other foreigners in connection to killing of North Korean leader’s half-brother
A 28-year-old woman, Doan Thi Huong, had been positively identified from CCTV footage and was alone at the time of her arrest, the Malaysia inspector general said.
The estranged older brother was once considered the heir apparent but lived a life in exile. He told medics at Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday that he was attacked “from behind” with a chemical spray while waiting to board a 10.50am flight to Macau, where he had lived.
He died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. Malaysian government sources claim North Korean officials in Malaysia objected to an autopsy being conducted on the body.
The high-profile killing has attracted international intrigue, with South Korea’s spy agency saying on Wednesday that two women, thought to be North Korean operatives, had poisoned the exile.
The theory that Kim had been targeted by spies from the country he left more than 15 years ago gathered pace after Malaysian officials released a CCTV image purporting to show one of the alleged attackers as she waited for a taxi outside the airport shortly after the incident.
Kim Jong-nam in 2010 in Macau. Photograph: Shin In-seop/AP
The image showed a young female, carrying a bag and wearing a white jumper that said “LOL” in large black print across the front. It is not clear if this is the same woman arrested by police.
At the medical centre Kim was taken to, three officers spoke to nurses on Wednesday morning. At first, he had experienced headache and was on the verge of passing out, authorities say. Once at the clinic, he appeared to have a mild seizure.
Selangor police chief Abdul Samah Mat told the Guardian that Kim Jong-nam had arrived in Malaysia on 6 February, a week before he was attacked.
“He was travelling on a North Korean passport,” he said, adding that a post-mortem was in progress. “It’s up to the pathologists on how long it will take. Sometimes it involves lab tests.”
North Korean officials spent hours on Wednesday trying to talk Malaysia out of conducting the autopsy, three Malaysian government sources familiar with the stand-off told Reuters. Malaysian authorities refused the request, the sources added, although no decision has yet been taken on whether the body will eventually be handed over to North Korea.
The attack occurred on Monday morning but it was not until late on Tuesday that police said a 46-year-old North Korean man had died. He was identified from his travel document as Kim Chol, born in Pyongyang.
Kim lived a secretive life and travelled on several forged passports, most famously in 2001 when he used a fake Dominican Republic ID to enter Japan. He had told Japanese immigration officials that he was planning
to visit Disneyland in Tokyo.
The incident caused embarrassment to his father, Kim Jong-il, which observers say led to his exile, living between Macau, China and Singapore, with some level of protection provided by Beijing, which has an uneasy relationship with North Korea.
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