Kim Jong Nam’s body released as countries lift their bans on travel
Print Edition
THE body of Kim Jong Nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has been released to North Korea, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday, bringing an end to a diplomatic spat that escalated over nearly seven weeks.
Najib said nine Malaysians barred from leaving North Korea had been allowed to board a plane to leave Pyongyang.
They left in a Royal Malaysian Air Force business jet, which headed west out of North Korean airspace before turning south toward Malaysia.
“Following the completion of the autopsy on the deceased and receipt of a letter from his family requesting the remains be returned to North Korea, the coroner has approved the release of the body,” Najib said in a statement which did not mention Kim by name.
Kim was killed at Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13.
Malaysian police say he was killed by two women who smeared super toxic VX nerve agent on his face. An Indonesian woman and Vietnamese woman have been charged.
A joint statement issued by North Korea’s government said both countries had managed to “resolve issues arising from the death of a DPRK national.” North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The importance of bilateral relations was reaffirmed. In this connection, both countries agreed to positively discuss the re-introduction of the visa-free system and work towards bringing the relations to a higher level,” the statement said.
Malaysia imposed a travel ban on North Koreans leaving the Southeast Asian country in a tit-for-tat move after Pyongyang barred Malaysians from leaving its borders.
Najib said yesterday that North Koreans will now be allowed to leave Malaysia.
North Korea had been angered that Malaysian authorities had identified North Korean suspects and wanted to question others, including a diplomat at its embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Pyongyang has maintained that the body was that of Kim Chol as stated in his passport, and not Kim Jong Nam.
Malaysia also expelled the North Korean ambassador for being “diplomatically rude,” though Najib later said that ties with Pyongyang would not be severed in a bid to calm relations.
Meanwhile, sources revealed that Malaysian authorities had at first wrongly identified the body as that of a South Korean national and alerted Seoul’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur soon after his death.
The police error had a silver lining. It enabled Seoul to quickly inform Kuala Lumpur that the dead man was probably Kim Jong Nam.
After examining the victim’s passport, Malaysian authorities confused the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea, with the Republic of Korea, the official name of its estranged southern neighbor, the sources said.
Malaysian authorities contacted the South Korean embassy, sending along copies of documents found on Kim’s body. After the mix-up was realized, North Korea’s diplomatic mission in Kuala Lumpur was informed on the day of the murder, the sources said.
Malaysian police did not respond to requests for comment.
The confusion over Kim’s nationality explains why it was the South Korean media that initially broke the news.
Within 24 hours of his death, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service had briefed lawmakers in Seoul that Kim Jong Nam was believed dead. This was then leaked to the South Korean media.
Hours after the news emerged in South Korea, Malaysian police confirmed that a North Korean man had died at the airport, without disclosing his identity.
South Korean and US intelligence sources say North Korea masterminded the attack, which Pyongyang denies.
North Korea does not acknowledge that the dead man is Kim Jong Nam.
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