Malaysians return, Kim Jong Nam’s body handed to North Korea

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA >> Nine Malaysians held in North Korea returned to Malaysia’s capital early Friday after the government released the body of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader, to the North. The exchange ended a bitter diplomatic battle between the two countries more than a month after Kim’s murder at Kuala Lumpur’s airport.

Following negotiations that he described as “very sensitive,” Prime Minister Najib Razak said Malaysia agreed to release the body in exchange for the return of the nine Malaysians held in Pyongyang.

There were no details on what led to the breakthrough, but North Korea appeared to win some important concessions: Custody of the body and the release of at least two suspects who had been holed up in its embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysians — three embassy workers and six family members including four children — were flown home in a government jet and greeted by Foreign Minister Anifah Aman at the airport early Friday. Anifah said their safe return reflected “diplomacy at its best” but declined to provide further details on the deal with North Korea.

Oh Ei Sun, an adjunct senior fellow with Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said it was not a surprise that North Korea did well in the negotiations.

“North Korea has been performing despicable deeds around the world such as kidnapping and assassinations throughout the decades with impunity,” Oh said.

The public poisoning of Kim, which took place amid crowds of travelers in the budget terminal at Kuala Lumpur’s airport on Feb. 13, has prompted speculation that North Korea dispatched a hit squad to assassinate its leader’s estranged older brother.

Although Kim was not an obvious political threat, he may have been seen as a potential rival in the country’s dynastic dictatorship.

Malaysia has never directly accused North Korea of being behind the murder, but many say the weapon — VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon — suggests the North must have orchestrated it. Experts say the VX was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory, and North Korea is widely believed to possess large quantities of chemical weapons.

Malaysia’s investigation has enraged North Korea. It has denied any role in the killing and denounced the investigation as flawed and politically motivated. North Korea does not even acknowledge the victim is Kim Jong Nam, referring to him instead as Kim Chol, the name on the passport he was carrying when he died.

But North Korea has always demanded custody of the body, arguing that the victim was a citizen.

As tensions escalated in recent weeks, both countries withdrew their ambassadors and North Korea blocked nine Malaysians who were in the country at the time from leaving. Malaysia responded in kind, barring North Koreans from exiting its soil, including three North Korean suspects believed to be hiding in the North Korean Embassy.