Pyongyang lashes Malaysia
State media breaks silence over Kim
KUALA LUMPUR: North Korea’s state media broke a 10-day silence yesterday on the murder of Kim Jong-un’s half brother, launching a ferocious assault on Malaysia for “immoral” handling of the case and for playing politics with the corpse.
In its first comments on the suspected airport assassination of Kim Jong-nam, KCNA said Malaysia bore responsibility for the death, and accused it of conspiring with South Korea.
“Malaysia is obliged to hand his body to the DPRK [North Korea] side as it made an autopsy and forensic examination of it in an illegal and immoral manner”, the North’s Korean Jurists Committee said, in comments carried by the state-run news agency.
Malaysia has not released the corpse “under the absurd pretext” that it needs a DNA sample from the dead man’s family, it said. “This proves that the Malaysian side is going to politicise the transfer of the body in utter disregard of international law and morality and thus attain a sinister purpose,” it said.
Throughout its lengthy dispatch, KCNA avoided any reference to the dead man’s identity, calling him only “a citizen of the DPRK bearing a diplomatic passport”. North Korea has never acknowledged him as the estranged brother of its leader.
Leaked CCTV footage from the brazen attack last Monday shows the portly Kim being approached by two women who appear to put something in his face. Malaysian police said he suffered a seizure and died before he reached hospital.
An autopsy has ruled out heart failure, with investigators focusing on the theory that a toxin was applied to his face, in what South Korea has insisted was a targeted assassination.
Malaysian detectives are holding three people — women from Indonesia and Vietnam, and a North Korean man — but want to speak to seven others, including diplomat Hyon Kwang-song.
But Malaysia’s top policeman acknowledged yesterday that unless Mr Hyon, second secretary at the North Korean mission, volunteers himself, they will be unable to speak to him. “We will adhere to the rules of immunity,” Khalid Abu Bakar said. “We cannot go inside the embassy.”
Malaysian police think four North Korean suspects may have fled to Pyongyang immediately after the killing.
A small group of protesters descended on North Korea’s embassy yesterday, with many carrying signs reading “Respect Malaysia”.
Demonstrators from the youth wing of Malaysia’s ruling party handed in a letter to diplomats denouncing Pyongyang’s “impermissible attitude and rudeness” and urging the North “to reconsider its aggressive approach”.
It was reported yesterday South Korea is using giant loudspeakers to blast news of the dramatic death across the border with its reclusive northern neighbour.
Seoul employed its banks of high-decibel loudspeakers to ensure details of the death of Kim reverberated through the border area, Seoul’s MBC TV station said.
“Kim Jong-nam... died after being attacked by two unidentified women at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia,” blared the message.
News of the outside world is heavily restricted and censored in the North.
Seoul’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se said on Wednesday in London the assassination by the North, if confirmed, would constitute a “serious breach” of international order and would be regarded as a “state-led act of terrorism”. He was meeting British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for foreign policy talks.
Pyongyang’s statement, issued in both English and Korean, repeated the North’s demand for a joint investigation, stressing it was ready to dispatch a delegation. It said Malaysia had initially claimed the death was from heart failure, and blamed the poisoning theory on “wild rumours” from South Korean media.
“The biggest responsibility for his death rests with the government of Malaysia as the citizen of the DPRK died in its land,” KCNA said.