N Korea diplomat wanted over killing

Embassy secretary among five in frame in Malaysian murder probe

DETECTIVES probing the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s halfbrother want to question a North Korean diplomat, Malaysia’s top policeman said yesterday.

Investigators have put five North Koreans in the frame for last week’s brazen killing of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and have said they are seeking three more for questioning.

They included the embassy’s second secretary, Hyon Kwang-song, as well as a North Korean airline employee called Kim Uk-il, Khalid Abu Bakar said.

“We have written to the ambassador to allow us to interview both of them. We hope the Korean embassy will allow us to interview them quickly,” he said.

Jong-nam died on February 13 after being attacked as he waited for a plane to Macau.

Leaked CCTV footage from the airport shows the 45-yearold being approached by two women, one of whom grabs him from behind and appears to shove a cloth in his face.

Moments later Jong-nam is seen seeking help from airport staff, who direct him to a clinic, where he slumped in a chair.

Malaysian police say he suffered a seizure and died before he reached hospital, seemingly from the effects of a toxin. Seoul has said from the start that Pyongyang was behind the murder, citing a “standing order” from Jong-un to kill his elder sibling, and a 2012 failed assassination bid.

Asked if the five North Korean suspects had masterminded the attack, Khalid said he believed they were heavily involved in the murder.

Four of the men fled the country on the day of the killing and returned to Pyongyang, he said, while one remains in custody in Malaysia.

The police chief dismissed claims the two women had believed the attack was a madefor-television prank.

“Of course they knew, it was a poison attack,” he said.

The video showed “the lady was moving away with her hands towards the bathroom. She was very aware that it was toxic and that she needed to wash her hands”.

Khalid said Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong, 28, and Indonesian Siti Aishah, 25, had been trained to swab the man’s face, practising in Kuala Lumpur before the assault.

Aishah wiped a toxic substance in his face first, followed by Huong, the national police chief said.

The Indonesian’s Malaysian boyfriend, who was arrested in the first days of the probe, had been released.

Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur have locked horns over the investigation, with North Korea’s envoy calling yesterday for Malaysia to release the two “innocent” women and the North Korean citizen from police custody.

Ambassador Kang Chol’s statement repeated allegations that South Korea had influenced the probe.

He did not address news that police were seeking to question an embassy official.

The diplomatic row erupted after North Korea objected to a postmortem of Jong-nam’s body and insisted his remains be returned to Pyongyang.

Malaysia, however, said the remains had to stay in the morgue until a family member identified them and submitted a DNA sample.

No next of kin had come forward, Khalid said. – AFP