No release of Kim’s body without DNA

Malaysian forensic specialists carrying out tests on samples from dead man’s body

The body of Kim Jongnam, the assassinated half-brother of North Korea’s leader, will not be released until his family have provided DNA samples, Malaysia said yesterday, despite a request from Pyongyang.

Detectives in Kuala Lumpur are trying to get to the bottom of the cloak-and-dagger murder that South Korea says was carried out by poison-wielding female agents working for their secretive northern neighbour.

Forensic specialists were Friday carrying out tests on samples from the dead man’s body to try to determine the toxin that was apparently sprayed in his face as he readied to board a plane earlier this week.

North Korean diplomats have objected to the postmortem examination, Malaysian officials say, but Kuala Lumpur has stood firm, and said yesterday it would not release the body until procedures were complete.

“So far no family member or next of kin has come to identify or claim the body. We need a DNA sample of a family member to match the profile of the dead person,” Selangor state police chief Abdul Samah Mat told AFP.

“North Korea has submitted a request to claim the body, but before we release the body we have to identify who the body belongs to,” he added.

DNA from a child, sibling — or even half-sibling — would be enough to provide a “kinship match” and confirm the identity, a Malaysian forensic investigator told AFP.

Laboratory technicians working on blood and tissue samples from the autopsy would conduct tests as soon as possible to determine the cause of death.

Police were meanwhile questioning two women — one travelling on a Vietnamese passport and the other on an Indonesian document — as well as a Malaysian man.