North Koreans reject Kim relative’s autopsy
Kim Jong Un’s estranged halfbrother is believed to have been the victim of an assassination.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA North Korea said Friday — it will reject the results of an autopsy on its leader’s estranged half brother, the victim of an apparent assassination this week at an airport in Malaysia. Pyongyang’s ambassador said Malaysian officials may be “trying to conceal something” and “colluding with hostile forces.”
Speaking to reporters gathered outside the morgue in Kuala Lumpur, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol said Malaysia conducted the autopsy on Kim Jong Nam “unilaterally and excluding our attendance.”
Kim, who was 45 or 46 and had lived in exile for years, suddenly fell ill at the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday as he waited for a flight home to Macau. Dizzy and in pain, he told medical workers at the airport he had been sprayed with a chemical. He died while being taken to a hospital.
“We will categorically reject the result of the postmortem,” Kang said, adding that the move disregarded “elementary international laws and consular laws.”
South Korea has accused North Korea of dispatching a hit squad to kill Kim at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, saying two female assassins poisoned him and fled in a taxi.
North Korean diplomats in Malaysia objected to an autopsy and requested custody of Kim’s body, arguing that he had a North Korean passport. Malaysian authorities went ahead with the procedure anyway.
The autopsy could provide some clarity in a case marked by speculation, tales of intrigue and explosive, unconfirmed reports from dueling nations. Authorities were still awaiting the autopsy results Friday.
Malaysia said it wants DNA samples from Kim’s family as part of the post-mortem procedure and that officials were not yet willing to hand the body over to the North Koreans. Although Kim is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau, police in Malaysia say no one has come forward to claim the body or provide the samples.
“If there is no claim by next-of-kin and upon exhausting all avenues (to obtain DNA), we will finally then hand over the body to the (North Korean) embassy,” said Abdul Samah Mat, a senior Malaysian police official. He would not say how long that process might take.
Malaysian police have arrested three people in the investigation but have released few details.
On Friday, Indonesia’s national police chief, Tito Karnavian, said the Indonesian woman arrested for suspected involvement in the death was duped into thinking she was part of a comedy show prank.