Kim’s death shrouded in mystery

Results of post-mortem examination of North Korean leader’s half-brother ‘ do not conclusively show use of poison’

KUALA LUMPUR // Determining whether poison killed the half brother of North Korea’s leader in a busy airport is proving difficult for Malaysian officials.

They said yesterday that the results of the post-mortem examination were inconclusive. Armed men stood guard at the morgue holding the body of Kim Jong-nam yesterday, with officials denying reports that his son had arrived to claim the remains. Kim was approached by two women at a budget air terminal in Kuala Lumpur on February 13 and had an unknown substance shoved in his face.

He did not suffer a heart attack and had no puncture wounds that a needle would have left, said Noor Abdullah, director general of health. He did not dismiss poison as a possible cause.

“We have to confirm with the lab report before we can make any conclusive remark,” he said, adding that medical specimens had been sent to experts for analysis.

Identifying a specific poison can be challenging, especially if a tiny amount was used and it did not penetrate fat cells in the victim’s tissue.

If the toxin only entered the bloodstream, it could leave the body very quickly. The more rare the poison is, the harder it is to find.

“If the substance involved is not something we often see, the likelihood is that we might not be able to detect it,” said Rahmat Awang, director of Malaysia’s national poison centre in Penang, who said he had yet to receive any samples. On Monday night Kim’s son, Kim Han-sol, was due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur from Macau, intelligence sources said.

But Mr Abdullah said: “We’re still waiting for the next of kin to come to us.”

Police have arrested four people carrying identity documents from North Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. One of them, Doan Thi Huong, is a Vietnamese from Nghia Binh, a largely Catholic farming village south of Hanoi.

Her father, Doan Van Thanh, yesterday said he could not believe she would do such an “earthshaking” thing.

“She is my daughter and I understand her,” he said. “She was scared of rats and toads. She would not have dared to do such thing.”