KUALA LUMPUR - The body of the half brother of Kim Jong Un is being returned to North Korea, and nine Malaysian citizens who had been barred from leaving North Korea are returning home, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday.
Kim Jong Nam was assassinated in a bizarre confrontation at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb 13, when two women - one Vietnamese, one Indonesian - smeared his face with the banned VX nerve agent.
To add to the plot, sources revealed on Thursday that
Malaysian authorities wrongly identified the slain half-brother of North Korea's leader as a South Korean national and first alerted Seoul's embassy in Kuala Lumpur soon after his death.
The police error did have a silver lining: It enabled Seoul to quickly inform Kuala Lumpur the dead man was probably Kim Jong Nam, half-brother to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The women told authorities they were duped into believing they were part of a reality TV show. The Malaysian investigation soon was targeting North Korea, which denied involvement.
An international confrontation ensued. Ambassadors were expelled and each country barred citizens of the other from leaving.
Najib said after intense negotiations the nine Malaysians had flown out of Pyongyang on Thursday and would land in Kuala Lumpur early Friday.
"I would like to thank those in the Malaysian government involved in the negotiations, led by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said in a statement.
Najib said an autopsy had been completed and the victim's family has formally asked that the body be returned to North Korea.
"Many challenges were overcome to ensure the return of our fellow Malaysians," he said.
The earlier confusion over Kim's nationality also 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. It then was 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.
OUT IN THE OPEN
The prime minister said Malaysia also has allowed North Korean citizens in Malaysia to leave the country. It wasn't clear whether that included the three suspects wanted for questioning by police and believed hiding in the embassy. Four other North Korean suspects left the country within hours of Kim's death.
"Our police investigation into this serious crime on Malaysian soil will continue," Najib said. "I have instructed for all possible measures to be taken to bring those responsible for this murder to justice."
South Korean and US intelligence sources say North Korea masterminded the attack, which Pyongyang denies.
North Korea did not even acknowledge until Thursday that the dead man is Kim Jong Nam. Pyongyang continued to refer to him as Kim Chol, the name on the diplomatic passport Kim was carrying when he died.
The North Koreans might never have acknowledged the slain man to be Kim Jong Un's half brother, if Malaysian police had sent his passport to their mission in Seoul instead of the South Korean embassy. South Korean intelligence officers say Kim Jong Un had issued standing orders for the elimination of his elder half-brother.
Kim Jong Nam’s murder was remarkably public, according to North Korea analysts. The assassins chose an airport covered by CCTV cameras and a designated weapon of mass destruction possessed by only a few states, North Korea among them.
“The effect had to be planned,” said Robert L. Gallucci, a former US chief negotiator with North Korea over its nuclear program. “They wanted to underline impunity, that they can act with impunity.”
The brazen nature of the assassination also made collecting evidence relatively easy. After the first chaotic day, the investigation was taken over by Malaysia’s Special Branch - which combines the roles of elite police unit and domestic intelligence agency.
The two women who smeared the VX nerve agent on Kim - described by police as Vietnamese “entertainment outlet employee” Doan Thi Huong and Indonesian “spa masseuse” Siti Aisyah - were arrested three days after the killing.
According to lawyers, families and consular officials, the two women believed they were involved in a prank.
CCTV AIRPORT FOOTAGE
Three days after the women's detention, four North Koreans were named as ringleaders of the plot, all of whom left Malaysia soon after the murder.
Captured by CCTV footage at the airport, the men - later identified by South Korea as agents of Pyongyang’s ministry of state security - were nearby when Kim was poisoned.
While South Korea and Malaysia were caught unawares by Kim’s trip to Malaysia, the alleged state security agents at the airport suggests North Korea was well informed.
Three of the four arrived in Malaysia before Kim did. The other one landed a day later, on February 7, police have said.
Malaysian police believe the women were recruited by another North Korean national Ri Ji U, also known as James.
Two other North Koreans, Hyon Kwang Song, second secretary at the Kuala Lumpur embassy, and Kim Uk Il, a staff member of North Korea’s state airline Air Koryo, were also named as suspects.
Ri, Hyon and Kim are believed to be holed up in the North Korean embassy, where Malaysian police are prevented from entering without permission under the Vienna Convention that lays out the international rules of diplomacy.
Another “important” but unnamed North Korean national is also being sought, Malaysian police inspector-general Khalid Abu Bakar said last week.
North Korea and Malaysia's historically close ties began to unravel in the wake of Kim's death, hitting a nadir when Pyongyang banned nine Malaysian citizens from leaving the country in retaliation for the Kim investigation.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak initially announced a tit-for-tat ban, accusing North Korea of “effectively holding our citizens hostage”. A day later, he struck a more conciliatory tone, saying the dispute would be solved through quiet negotiations.
Those talks have yet to conclude. North Korea is demanding Kim’s body and the three remaining suspects inside its embassy be returned to Pyongyang in exchange for an end to the travel ban on Malaysians, a diplomatic source said.