KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian investigators used a DNA sample from a son of Kim Jong-Nam to confirm the identity of the murdered half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un, the deputy prime minister said Thursday.
The 45-year-old, who was living in exile in the Chinese territory of Macau, was poisoned with the lethal nerve agent VX in a brazen Cold War-style assassination on February 13 in Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for his death, but the North has rejected those claims and has never confirmed the identity of the victim, who was carrying a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol when he was attacked. Malaysia officially confirmed his identity on Friday, later revealing that authorities used his fingerprints and a DNA sample from one of his children to do so. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Thursday revealed that the sample was “taken from the son… who is living abroad”.
Ahmad Zahid told reporters that Malaysian officials travelled overseas to an undisclosed location to collect the DNA sample. “The DNA was taken and brought to Malaysia and matching was made and we confirmed that the body belonged to Kim Jong-Nam.” Two women — one Vietnamese and one Indonesian — have been arrested and charged with the murder. Airport CCTV footage shows them approaching the victim and apparently smearing his face with a piece of cloth.
Investigators are also seeking seven North Korean suspects, four of whom left Malaysia on the day of the murder. Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for the four men.
The police chief has said he believes they fled to Pyongyang while the other three are hiding in North Korea’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Pyongyang has denounced the investigation as an attempt to smear the secretive regime, insisting that Kim most likely died of a heart attack. Agencies
