Arrest in Kim case

Police hold North Korean

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police said yesterday they had arrested a North Korean man over the assassination of Kim Jong-Un’s brother, as relations between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur nosedived in 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, a police statement said.

Kim Jong-Nam died after an as-yet 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 from Pyongyang.

Local officers have already arrested a woman with a Vietnamese passport and a Malaysian man, as well as an Indonesian woman who foreign police said could have got involved in the murder thinking it was a reality TV prank.

Jong-Nam’s body has been held in a Kuala Lumpur mor- tuary since an autopsy on Wednesday, the results of which are still pending, according to Selangor state police chief Abdul Samah Mat.

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.

“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 said.

The comments were the first official remarks from the country since the killing, but ambassador Kang Chol stopped short of identifying Jong-Nam.

The ambassador had met with Malaysian police, demanding the release of the body without success, according to the envoy.