A 46-year-old Ri Jong Chol was the first North Korean to be arrested over the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. Earlier an Indonesian woman, a Malaysian man and another woman were detained, reports CNN.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Malysian Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed on Thursday that the assassinated man who was travelling under the name Kim Chol, was actually Kim Jong-nam.
Siti Aisyah, one of the detained women from Indonesia, told the Malaysian police that she had been paid to perform what she thought was a prank. The Malaysian man who was thought to be her boyfriend was also detained together with her that time.
Kim was attacked in airport departure hall on Monday by two women who used some form of chemical.
Security camera footage show an image, broadcasted in South Korea and Malaysia, of a woman with a white T-shirt with letters “LOL’’ printed on the front.
Police say they are still looking for other suspects since it’s not clear whether the detained woman is actually the one on the footage.
Though the results have not yet been made known to the public, the police have finished the post-mortem examination of the deceased.
But claims are that North Korea will not accept the autopsy results.
Demands has been made by North Korea for Malaysia to release the body but Malaysia is refusing until it receives a DNA sample from Mr Kim’s next-of-kin for verification of the family relation.
Accusations made by the South Korea’s intelligence agency is the country’s rivals in the north assassinated Kim Jong-nam. They said that Pyongyang had wanted to kill him for years but they couldn’t because he was being protected by China.
There is still no proof of the allegations made despite the widespread speculation that North Korea was responsible. There have been no public comments made by Pyongyang over the issue.
After being passed over for the North Korean leadership in favor of his brother, Kim was largely estranged from his family members. Most of his time he spent abroad in Macau, mainland China and Singapore.
Initially he had spoken in the past against his family’s dynastic control over North Korean and in the year 2012 it was quoted from a book that he said his younger half-brother had no leadership skills.
Even though he had no interest in leadership himself from his statement.