This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Kim Jong-nam's body to be released in deal with North Korea
Kim Jong-nam's body arrives back in North Korea
(about 20 hours later)
Malaysia has agreed to release the body of Kim Jong-nam to North Korea in exchange for the return of nine Malaysians held in Pyongyang.
The body of the assassinated half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived in Pyongyang, apparently accompanied by three men initially named by Malaysian police as suspects in his murder.
Relations between Malaysia and North Korea have been badly frayed by the murder of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, at Kuala Lumpur’s airport. Both countries withdrew their ambassadors and North Korea blocked nine Malaysians from leaving the country. Malaysia responded in kind, preventing the departure of North Koreans, including three suspects believed to be hiding in the North Korean embassy.
Kim Jong-nam was attacked with the lethal nerve agent VX on 13 February in Kuala Lumpur airport, in an audacious cold war-style operation that triggered a diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea.
Following negotiations that he described as “very sensitive”, the prime minister, Najib Razak, said on Thursday that North Korea had allowed the nine Malaysians to leave, and that Malaysia had agreed to release Kim’s remains to North Korea. He did not say whether Kim’s body had already left Malaysia.
The Malaysian national police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, said three North Koreans wanted for questioning had finally been interviewed and allowed to leave on the same plane carrying Kim’s body.
Earlier, a van was seen leaving the morgue where Kim’s body was being held, after which police guards were removed.
“We have obtained whatever we want from them … we are satisfied,” Bakar said. The three men had been in the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur for weeks.
Najib said in a statement that Malaysia would allow North Koreans to leave the country as part of the agreement. It was not clear whether that included the three suspects wanted by police. They include an embassy employee and an Air Koryo worker. Four other North Korean suspects left the country on the day Kim was killed.
China confirmed the body had arrived in Pyongyang – after transiting through Beijing – along with “relevant” North Korean nationals.
“Following the completion of the autopsy on the deceased and receipt of a letter from his family requesting the remains be returned to North Korea, the coroner has approved release of the body,” Najib said.
Both countries expelled each other’s ambassadors and barred their citizens from leaving in a bitter standoff over the killing.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency confirmed the agreement, saying the two sides had pledged to “guarantee the safety and security” of each other’s citizens, and that Malaysia had agreed to transfer the body “to the family of the deceased” in North Korea. Kim, however, is believed to have children with women living in Macau and Beijing, not in North Korea.
Late on Thursday, Kuala Lumpur said it had agreed to send back the body to the North in exchange for nine of its citizens, who were returned to Malaysia early on Friday.
Government officials could not immediately be reached for further details.
Malaysia’s police chief said the three North Koreans had been wanted for questioning because they were seen on CCTV near the airport attack.
Kim was poisoned on 13 February in a crowded terminal at the airport. According to Malaysian investigators, two young women approached Kim as he waited for a flight and smeared VX nerve agent – a banned chemical weapon – on his face. He was dead within 20 minutes. North Korea, which is widely suspected to be behind the attack, has rejected the autopsy findings.
“In the beginning we said we would like them to assist in the investigation and we have allowed them to go,” Khalid told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Oh Ei Sun, an adjunct senior fellow with Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the three North Korean suspects at the embassy had been allowed to leave as part of the deal.
He said police still wanted to question four other suspects believed to be in North Korea.
“This is not a surprise,” Oh said. “North Korea has been performing despicable deeds around the world, such as kidnapping and assassinations, throughout the decades with impunity.”
Malaysia had been waiting for the family to claim the body and Khalid hinted that the North’s leader could have written the letter to claim the body. “Legally, Kim Jong-un is next of kin,” he said.
He said he thought North Korea might have asked for more, such as demanding that Malaysia change its autopsy finding to conclude that Kim died of a heart attack.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, told a regular press briefing that Beijing “offered necessary assistance to the transit of the body”.
Experts say the VX nerve agent was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory, and North Korea is widely believed to possess large quantities of chemical weapons.
The murder in Kuala Lumpur removed a potential claimant to the Kim throne – he was late leader Kim Jong-il’s first-born – who was an embarrassment to Pyongyang.
North Korea has denied any role in the killing and denounced the investigation as flawed and politically motivated. North Korea does not even acknowledge the victim is Kim Jong-nam, referring to him instead as Kim Chol, the name on the passport he was carrying when he died.
South Korea has blamed the North for the killing, citing what they say was a standing order from Kim Jong-un to murder his exiled and estranged half-brother. The North denies this and denounced Malaysia’s investigation into the death as an attempt to smear the secretive regime.
North Korea had demanded custody of the body because the victim was one of its citizens. But Malaysia refused, in part because it needed to formally identify the body, which it now says it has done, using DNA from Kim’s son.
It had insisted the man, who it has not named, died of a heart attack.
The two women accused of wiping Kim’s face with the poison have been charged with murder. Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam say they were duped into thinking they were taking part in a hidden-camera prank TV show.
Two women – one Vietnamese and one Indonesian – have been arrested and charged with the murder. Airport CCTV footage shows them approaching the 45-year-old victim and apparently smearing his face with a cloth.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, announced the body-swap deal late on Thursday, saying his government had “worked intensively behind the scenes” to reach an agreement.
He said the coroner approved the release of Kim’s body after completion of the autopsy and receipt of a letter from his family requesting the remains be returned to North Korea.
Malaysia, however, has officially confirmed his identity using DNA evidence.
