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Malaysia confirms Kim’s identity using child’s DNA

Wednesday, 15 March 2017 11:07 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 15 March 2017 11:31 AM ]

Hospital workers move a body cart to the gate of the forensics wing of the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, where the body of Kim Jong-nam is being held, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 15, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Malaysia has used a DNA sample from one of Kim Jong-nam’s children to confirm the identity of the assassinated half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, the deputy prime minister said Wednesday.

Investigators “confirmed the identity of the body as Kim Jong-nam based on the sample obtained from his child,” said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, without elaborating.

The 45-year-old was poisoned with the deadly nerve agent VX in a brazen Cold War-style assassination in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13.

Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for his death, but the North has rejected those claims and has never confirmed the identity of the victim, who was carrying a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol when he was attacked.

Malaysia officially confirmed his identity on Friday, but refused to say whether authorities had obtained a DNA sample from a next-of-kin.

The killing triggered a bitter row between Malaysia and North Korea, which have expelled each other’s ambassadors and refused to let their citizens leave.

Photographers take pictures of a vehicle carrying embassy staff as it leaves the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, March 8, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Kim’s wife and children, who were living in exile in the Chinese territory of Macau, staged a vanishing act after the murder. There are fears his 21-year-old son, Kim Han-Sol, could be targeted next.

Three Malaysian embassy staff and six family members are stranded in Pyongyang after North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country last week, prompting a tit-for-tat move by Kuala Lumpur.

Two women — one Vietnamese and one Indonesian — have been arrested and charged with the murder. Airport CCTV footage shows them approaching the victim and apparently smearing his face with a piece of cloth.

(Source: AFP)

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