Earlier this week, North Korea’s ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, Kang Chol, called for a joint investigation of the death.
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Malaysia responded with its own accusations, with a foreign ministry statement saying the ambassador’s comments were “culled from delusions, lies and half-truths”.
Malaysia has also recalled its ambassador to Pyongyang, Mohamad Nizan Mohamad, over the killing.
Malaysia has denied North Korea’s request for the body to be handed over to its embassy directly, and the North Koreans have accused the Malaysians of being not competent to carry out the investigation.
He said Malaysian authorities had received no help so far from North Korea.
The drama erupted last Monday as Kim Jong-Nam waited at the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur’s main airport for a flight to Macau. It has called the claim of a conspiracy with Malaysia “preposterous and sophistic”.
A auto with North Korean embassy tags visited a central police office for around a half-hour Wednesday afternoon, according to Malaysia’s The Star news agency, which adds that the car’s occupants ignored a flock of journalists who were seeking comment. They say that reports that Kim Jung-nam’s son had already travelled to Kuala Lumpur for this goal were false.
The North Korean Embassy’s statement was aimed at getting at least a little of the country’s spin in worldwide coverage of the killing. Kim Jong Nam was still able to walk, although increasingly slowly, so the staff took him to a clinic in the airport.
Mr Kim, a heavy-set man in his 40s, died soon after the attack en route to hospital. While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding could have made him appear to be a danger.
Huong – who is shown in CCTV from the airport wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “LOL” – worked at an “entertainment outlet” and Aishah was a masseuse at a spa, police said.
South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said this week that eight North Koreans were involved in the case and that the apparent assassination fit a long a history of North Korean terrorist attacks overseas and executions of officials considered a threat to the country’s leader. “But things become more complicated if they try to transport the corpse overseas without cremation, since that would require a permit from the government of the country in question [because of Kim’s North Korean citizenship]”, the source added.
Malaysian authorities have been insisting on a DNA match before releasing the body, so Kim Han Sol could have arrived to provide it.
Pyongyang has criticised the handling of the investigation, while the two countries have also disagreed over the custody of Kim’s body.
A toxicology report should be released between one and two weeks after the post-mortem, the health minister has said on different occasions, which means there could be more detail about the kind of poison used as early as Wednesday.
In one of the stranger twists in the case, Indonesian police said last week that Aishah told them she not aware that she was part of a murder plot. “At the moment, we do not have anyone claiming to be the next of kin; we are still waiting for them”, Noor Hisham said.
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The entire investigation has been “politicized by Malaysia in collusion” with North Korea’s bitter enemy, South Korea, he said.
