Malaysian police yesterday said that four North Korean suspects in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fled Malaysia on the day of the killing.
The four North Koreans flew out of the country, but police would not reveal the flight’s destination, just that they were coordinating with Interpol to track them down.
Malaysian police arrested a North Korean man on Friday in connection to the murder of Kim Jong-nam, while a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman have also been arrested. A Malaysian man is being detained to facilitate the investigation.
Kim Jong-nam died on Monday after being assaulted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where he was catching a flight to Macau and South Korean and US officials have said he was assassinated by North Korean agents.
“I can confirm today that they [four North Korean suspects] have left our country the very same day the incident happen,” police Deputy Inspector-General Noor Rashid Ismail told reporters at a news conference. “The four suspects are holding normal passports, not diplomatic passports.”
Police said they were trying to contact Kim Jong-nam’s next of kin, whom they have given to weeks to claim his body.
“The body must be identified. The most eligible to identify the body physically is the next-of-kin,” Noor Rashid said.
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