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Updated 10.18am
MALAYSIAN POLICE SAY they have arrested a third person in connection with the apparent assassination of Kim Jong-Un’s half brother, Kim Jong-Nam.
Police official Abdul Samah said a Malaysian man was arrested yesterday evening who is believed to be the boyfriend of the second suspect.
Samah also said that the man provided information that led to the arrest of the woman who was using Indonesian travel documents.
The second woman was taken into custody overnight over the spy novel-style assassination allegedly carried out by Pyongyang agents.
A police statement said she was being quizzed along with a 28-year-old Vietnamese woman detained yesterday.
The two women were arrested separately by detectives trying to get to the bottom of the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, the estranged playboy brother of Kim Jong-Un.
South Korean intelligence chiefs say he was poisoned by North Korean agents as he walked through Kuala Lumpur International Airport on his way to board a flight for Macau.
The portly 45-year-old had some kind of liquid sprayed in his face after being set upon by two women, Malaysian police have said.
He was rushed to hospital suffering from a seizure, but was dead before he got there.
CCTV images that emerged in Malaysian media, purportedly of one of the suspects, showed an Asian woman wearing a white top with the letters “LOL” emblazoned on the front.
Several more arrests were expected throughout the day, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim told national Malaysian news agency Bernama.
The first suspect, named as Doan Thi Huong, had been expected to appear in court on this morning, but Selangor state police chief Abdul Samah Mat told AFP officers had obtained a seven-day remand order for her and for Indonesian passport holder Siti Aishah, aged 25.
North Korea ’objects to autopsy’
Kim’s body was being held at Kuala Lumpur Hospital following an autopsy, the results of which have not yet been released.
North Korea had objected to the post-mortem examination being carried out, a senior Malaysian official familiar with the investigation told AFP.
“But we told them to follow Malaysia’s laws,” he added.
Malaysian media cited unnamed senior sources as saying North Korea had requested the body, but Samah said that nobody had come forward and that it would remain in the morgue until it was claimed.
An official at the morgue said they had no indication who would claim the body or when.
But North Korean embassy officials were seen visiting the hospital’s forensics department in a diplomatic vehicle on Wednesday afternoon and again overnight.
If confirmed, the assassination, which analysts said could have been ordered over reports Kim was readying to defect, would be the highest-profile death under the watch of the North’s young leader Kim Jong-Un.
Jong-Nam was the eldest son of Kim Jong-Il, but on his father’s death in 2011 the succession went to Jong-Un, who was born to the former leader’s third wife.
The first-born had at one time been set to assume the leadership of his isolated country, but fell out of favour after an embarrassing attempt to get into Japan on a fake passport in 2001.
He has since lived in exile, with much of his time spent in the gambling enclave of Macau, where he was believed to have enjoyed some protection from Chinese security forces.
Known as an advocate of reform in the North and believed to have ties with Beijing’s elite, Jong-Nam once told Japanese reporters that he opposed his country’s dynastic system.
Reports of purges and executions have emerged from Jong-Un’s North Korea in recent years, as the young leader tries to strengthen his grip on power in the face of international pressure over his country’s nuclear and missile programmes.
In 2012 Jong-Nam sent a letter to his younger brother begging him to spare his life, a member of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee told reporters after news of the airport killing broke.
Additional reporting from AP
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Not what you’d call Cloak & Dagger style killing with 006 & 007 being caught. Still a nasty way to die & I’m sure they’ll be only one suspect! I’m sure his brother Kim Jong-Un will be very upset?
I’d say the two caught will be better off in a Malaysian jail than back in North Korea.
I doubt that there are any family members left who could claim the body.
He got off lightly, considering his brother has previously had people killed by flamethrower, anti-aircraft gun and starved dogs.
There is something far more suspicious underlying here.
Last week he launched a missile, this week he he knocks off his brother .
My point is that he could have had his brother assassinated at any time in the last few years, why now , why is he maintaining his high profile in the media ?
A challenge to Trump. He’s saying what can you do to me about all of this. He might have over stepped the mark this time as China had his half brother under their protection.
@Shane Murphy.He was threatening to expose his brother’s hairdresser, signed his own death warrent.
@B9xiRspG: I doubt China cares if the Kim’s decide to feud among themselves, regardless of Jong-Nam having had ties with them or not
He’s fishing for twitter followers
I’m curious as to how comments are allowed on this story but not for the Paris riots story. Why the double standard?
The film of this will be interesting
North Korea is what we should emulate, such a success story.
All roads lead to Mad Kim…
have your say