AIRPORT KILLING SEEN ON CCTV, PROBE STRAINS MALAYSIA-N KOREA TIES
Footage appears to show deliberate attack on leader’s brother
Footage from airport cameras purportedly showing the assault on the halfbrother of the North Korean leader emerged on Monday as a diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea escalated over the handling of a probe into the killing of Kim Jong- nam.
Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang and summoned North Korea’s ambassador in Kuala Lumpur to explain his accusations that Malaysian authorities were colluding “with external forces” over the investigation into the slaying of leader Kim Jung-un’s estranged halfbrother.
Malaysian police are hunting four North Koreans who fled the country on the day of the attack, having already detained one North Korean man, a Vietnamese woman, an Indonesian woman, and a Malaysian man.
At least three of the wanted North Koreans caught an Emirates flight to Dubai from Jakarta late on the same day, an immigration office official in the Indonesian capital told Reuters. Malaysia’s Star newspaper reported that all four had returned to Pyongyang.
South Korean and US officials have said the killing was probably carried out by North Korean agents. CCTV footage, released by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV, purportedly showed Kim Jongnam being assaulted in Kuala Lumpur International Airport by a woman, who is believed to have wiped a fast-acting poison on his face. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, and police officials were not immediately available for comment. Malaysia’s determination to carry out an autopsy and refusal to hand over the body directly to North Korea prompted the North Korean ambassador to question the motives of Malaysian authorities in rare comments to the media on Friday.
Malaysia’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations in a statement announcing the withdrawal “for consultations” of its ambassador in North Korea and the summoning of the North Korean envoy in Kuala Lumpur to explain his remarks.
“In his press conference, the ambassador ... insinuated that ... the Malaysian Government had ‘something to conceal’. The ambassador also alleged that Malaysia was ‘colluding and playing into the gallery of external forces’,” it said.
Kim Jong-nam, 46, who has been living in the Chinese territory of Macau under Beijing’s protection, had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of isolated, nucleararmed North Korea.
The grainy CCTV images, which have been posted on several websites, showed Kim, wearing a light-coloured jacket and pants and with a backpack on one shoulder, heading for an automatic check-in counter in the airport departure hall. A woman is seen approaching Kim from behind on the left and another identified by Fuji as the Vietnamese woman walks rapidly up behind him from his right, before what appears to be a scuffle takes place.