KUALA LUMPUR // Malaysian police on Sunday said they believe five North Koreans were involved in the murder of the half-brother of leader Kim Jong-un, and that four got away straight afterwards.
South Korea said the announcement proved Pyongyang was behind the murder of Kim Jong-nam, who died after being squirted in the face with an unidentified liquid at Kuala Lumpur International Airport last Monday.
The case has also sparked a diplomatic row between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysia rejected North Korean demands for the body to be handed over to them immediately.
Malaysian police are seeking four North Korean men, deputy inspector general of police Noor Rashid Ibrahim told a press conference. The other North Korean suspect, Ri Jong-chol, 46 was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
Suspects Ri Ji-hyon, O Jong-gil, Ri Jae-nam and Hong Song-hac, aged between 33 and 57, entered Malaysia in February or late January, the police chief said.
Three more North Koreans were wanted for questioning, he said.
An Indonesian woman and her Malaysian boyfriend, and a Vietnamese woman are also under arrest.
“Considering that five suspects are North Korean nationals, we view that the North Korean government is behind the incident,” Seoul’s unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said immediately after Sunday’s announcement.
The deputy police chief refused to comment on any political motive for the killing, saying only that investigations were continuing.
Pyongyang has demanded Jong-nam’s body be returned but Malaysia has said it must remain in the country until it is identified through a DNA sample from a family member – which Pyongyang has so far refused to provide.
“We are trying very hard to get the next of kin to come and assist us in the investigation,” Mr Noor Rashid said, but added no such family member had yet come forward.
Results from the autopsy performed on Wednesday were not yet available.
The Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong, 28, worked as an “entertainment outlet employee”, police said on Sunday, while 25-year-old Indonesian Siti Aishah was a masseuse at a spa.
Ms Huong grew up in a small rice farming village in Vietnam’s Nam Dinh province and left around 10 years ago, former neighbours said, but was always noticed when she came back for visits.
“She has always been very fashionable, with colourful hair,” neighbour Maria Nguyen said. Ms Huong would bring a new foreign boyfriend home to her village every lunar new year.
She was seen in CCTV images at Kuala Lumpur airport wearing a white top with the letters “LOL” emblazoned on the front, according to Malaysian media.
Authorities in Hanoi have yet to confirm whether the woman identified by Malaysia as Doan Thi Huong is a Vietnamese national, but Ms Ngyuen said “we knew one hundred per cent it was her”.
Police have been making regular visits to the village since the news broke, she added.
Ms Huong’s brother Joseph Doan said they had been given little information on what had happened to his sister. He had not had much contact with her much and did not know what she did for work.
Indonesian police chief Tito Karnavian said he had information from Malaysia that Ms Aishah was tricked into thinking she was simply taking part in a prank for a reality TV show, but Mr Noor Rashid would not comment on the claim.
The drama erupted on Monday as Jong-nam prepared to board a plane to Macau, where he has been living in recent years. Malaysian police say the 45-year-old was jumped by two women who squirted liquid in his face.
He suffered a seizure and died before arriving at hospital.
He was once thought to be the natural successor to his father, the then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but the succession went instead to his younger half-brother Kim Jong-un.
* Agence France-Presse
