Kim Jong Nam’s second wife wants to claim body

She lives in Macau and seeks the help of Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to arrange this.

KUALA LUMPUR: New information has emerged that the second wife of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has approached the Chinese government to help in claiming the body, a government official said.

The source said a request was made through the People’s Republic of China’s embassy here.

However, the body is unlikely to be released until the authorities have received the full post-mortem report.

The post-mortem was completed at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital yesterday and the report is expected to be out in a week.

Jong Nam, 46, was the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Jong Nam had made Macau his home over the years. His second wife and children are there.

He also used to travel to Beijing often as it was where his first wife and children live.

Jong Nam had entered Malaysia on Feb 6. On Monday, he was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) to board the 9am flight to Macau.

He sought help at the service counter claiming that he was having a headache after two women sprayed his eyes and face with some chemical and covered it with a cloth.

He was taken to the clinic at the airport before an ambulance was summoned. He died on the way to the Putrajaya Hospital.

North Korea, upon being informed of the death, had requested for the body to be released to them without a post-mortem but the request was rejected.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim told FMT yesterday that the body would only be released to the rightful party after all the criteria had been fulfilled.

“The incident happened here and we have to conduct a thorough investigation and the post-mortem is part of the procedure.”

He said the deceased’s immediate family members were the rightful party to claim the body.

Malaysian police have already arrested three people in connection with the case.

Two of them, a woman aged 28, with a Vietnamese travel document, and woman, aged 25, from Indonesia, were identified through closed circuit television camera footage at the airport.

They have been remanded for a week to shed light into the investigation.

The boyfriend of the Indonesian was also detained. Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, in a statement, identified him as Malaysian Muhammad Farid Jalaluddin, 26.

Selangor police chief Abdul Samah Mat said police were still investigating if this man had any connection with the case.

Meanwhile, police have tightened security at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital morgue where Jong Nam’s body is being kept.

Foreign and local reporters had camped out in front of the morgue since yesterday after news of Jong Nam’s death broke out. -FMT