Intrigue and mystery surrounds a
female suspect arrested in Malaysia in connection with the apparent
assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s exiled half-brother, Kim Jong Nam.
A
woman carrying Vietnamese travel documents bearing the name Doan Thi
Huong was arrested today at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International
Airport 2, where Kim Jong Nam was allegedly attacked, police said. The
suspect was alone at the time of the arrest and she was identified using
surveillance footage from the airport, according to a statement from
the Royal Malaysia Police.
The
woman’s travel documents also showed a birth date of May 1998 and
birthplace of Nam Dinh, Vietnam, police said. It’s unclear whether the
documents were genuine.
Police said the investigation is ongoing and they are looking for more suspects.
According
to the Royal Malaysia Police, a North Korean man who “sought initial
medical assistance” at the customer service counter in the Kuala Lumpur
International Airport 2 on Monday died as he was being transported to
the hospital. Police said the 46-year-old man was carrying North Korean
travel documents bearing the name Kim Chol with a birth date of June
1970 and birthplace of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.
The
name on the travel documents, Kim Chol, is the name of another brother
of Kim Jong Un, but the birthdate matches the reported age of Kim Jong
Nam, who is believed to be 45 or 46.
Two
senior Malaysian government officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the case involves sensitive diplomacy, told The
Associated Press that the victim was Kim Jong Nam, the estranged older
half-brother of North Korea’s leader who had been living abroad for
years.
Kim Jong Nam was targeted on Monday in the airport’s
shopping area before he went through immigration control for his flight
to Macau, where he is believed to have been living in recent years. He
told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked at the
airport with a chemical spray, the Malaysian officials told the AP.
Multiple
South Korean media reports, citing unidentified government sources,
said two women believed to be North Korean agents killed Kim Jong Nam
with some kind of poison before fleeing the scene in a taxi.
Surveillance
footage that appears to be from the domestic check-in area at the Kuala
Lumpur airport has surfaced today, but has not been verified by
Malaysian police. The footage shows two women approaching a man who
resembles Kim Jong Nam. One woman is wearing a white t-shirt adorned
with the letters “LOL.” It's unclear whether the female suspect arrested
today is one of the women seen in the surveillance footage.
The South Korean Unification
Ministry said today it recognized that the North Korean man who died in
Malaysia’s capital was “certainly Kim Jong Nam.” The ministry did not
offer further details on the alleged murder but said the South Korean
government would inspect the security system for North Korean defectors
and officials of South-North exchange organizations, as there had been
assassinations or assassination threats by North Korea against defectors
in the South.
"The
government is certainly judging that the murdered person is certainly
Kim Jong Nam,” the ministry’s spokesman, Jeong Joon-hee, said in Korean
at a press briefing in Seoul. “The Malaysian government did not specify
[that the murdered man is Kim Jong Nam]. Since this case is still being
investigated, we should wait for details until the Malaysian government
makes an announcement [on details of the murder]. I will only say that
the South Korean government will closely cooperate with the Malaysian
government."
A convoy was
seen leaving the hospital morgue in Kuala Lumpur today where Kim Jong
Nam’s body was reportedly being held, according to the AP.
The
U.S. Department of State told ABC News on Tuesday that it was aware of
the reports about Kim Jong Nam’s alleged assassination and referred
questions to Malaysian authorities. The South Korean embassy in
Washington, D.C., said it did not have independent confirmation of the
reports but was monitoring media coverage.
As Kim Jong Il’s
eldest son, Kim Jong Nam was initially seen as the heir-apparent to the
late leader of North Korea’s regime. But Kim Jong Nam was pushed out of
the succession plan and his younger half-brother, Kim Jong Un,
inherited their father’s power.
Kim
Jong Nam reportedly fell out of favor after he was caught trying to
enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo
Disneyland.
ABC
News’ Conor Finnegan, Benjamin Gittleson, Joshua Hoyos and Luis
Martinez contributed to this report. The Associated Press also
contributed to this report.
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