‘Four N Korean suspects fled after murder of Kim’s brother’

KUALA LUMPUR: Four North Korean suspects in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fled Malaysia on the day he was attacked at Kuala Lumpur airport and apparently killed by a fast-acting poison, police said on Sunday.

A North Korean man, a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman have already been arrested in connection with the assassination of Kim Jong-nam last Monday, which has triggered a diplomatic spat between Malaysia and Pyongyang.

South Korean and US officials believe Kim Jong-nam was killed by agents from the reclusive North, whose diplomats in Kuala Lumpur sought to prevent an autopsy on the 46-year-old’s body and have demanded that it be handed over.

“The four suspects are holding normal passports, not diplomatic passports,” he said. “Next plan is to get them. We of course have international cooperation especially with Interpol and we will go through those avenues to get the people involved.”

TUSSLE OVER BODY

Police believe the two women carried out the attack on Kim Jong Nam, thrusting a cloth seeped in some chemical into his face in the departure lounge of the airport, where he had been due to take a flight to Macau.

The mother of the Indonesian woman, Siti Aishah, said her daughter had been duped into believing she was part of a TV show or advertisement. “She said she wanted to go to Malaysia for filming on a show to make people surprised by spraying perfume on somebody else,” said Benah, who goes by one name.