Kuala Lumpur – North Korea has said it will “categorically reject” the results of a postmortem on Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of leader Kim Jong Un, who died under mysterious circumstances in Kuala Lumpur this week.
“The Malaysian side forced the postmortem without our permission and witnessing,” North Korea’s ambassador to Malaysia, Kang Chol, told reporters late Friday outside the hospital mortuary.
“We will categorically reject the result of the postmortem conducted unilaterally excluding our attendance,” he said.
Earlier Friday, Malaysian police said they would not release the body until his family comes forward with DNA samples.
“We want to establish the conclusive identification of the body for the DNA test,” Selangor state police chief Datuk Abdul Samah Mat told dpa.
According to media reports, North Korea had requested permission to claim the body, but that was rejected by local authorities.
“We will keep the body until a certain period,” the police chief added when asked what would happen if Kim’s next of kin does not come forward in the days or weeks to come.
Kim Jong Nam, the eldest of former dictator Kim Jong Il’s three sons, was due to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Macau but the 45-year-old never made the trip.
He suddenly fell ill Kuala Lumpur International Airport and died en route to hospital on Tuesday.
A first suspect in the apparent assassination was arrested on Wednesday, carrying Vietnamese travel documents.
Two more suspects were arrested on Thursday, an Indonesian and a Malaysian.
Police in Malaysia were looking for four other men believed to be connected with the killing. Forensics department are also carrying out tests to determine the toxic poison that caused Kim Jong Nam’s death.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s vice president said Friday that a woman held in Malaysia for suspected involvement in the killing thought she was taking part in a TV prank.
“She was deceived into doing what was thought to be a media prank, a reality show,” Jusuf Kalla was quoted as saying by Detik.com news website.
The woman’s mother told Detik that the family found out about her arrest from television news. “We were shocked,” she said. “We didn’t know anything.”
-dpa
