KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Footage from airport cameras purportedly showing the assault on the half-brother of the North Korean leader emerged on Monday as a diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea escalated over the handling of a probe into the killing of Kim Jong Nam.
Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang and summoned North Korea’s ambassador in Kuala Lumpur to explain his accusations that Malaysian authorities were colluding “with external forces” over the investigation into the slaying of leader Kim Jung Un’s estranged half-brother.
Malaysian police are hunting four North Koreans who fled the country on the day of the attack, having already detained one North Korean man, a Vietnamese woman, an Indonesian woman, and a Malaysian man.
At least three of the wanted North Koreans caught an Emirates flight to Dubai from Jakarta late on the same day, an immigration office official in the Indonesian capital told Reuters. Malaysia’s Star newspaper reported that all four had returned to Pyongyang.
South Korean and US officials have said the killing was probably carried out by North Korean agents.
CCTV footage, released by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV, purportedly showed Kim Jong Nam being assaulted in Kuala Lumpur International Airport by a woman, who is believed to have wiped a fast-acting poison on his face.
Malaysia’s determination to carry out an autopsy and refusal to hand over the body directly to North Korea prompted the North Korean ambassador to question the motives of Malaysian authorities in rare comments to the media on Friday.
Malaysia’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations in a statement announcing the withdrawal “for consultations” of its ambassador in North Korea and the summoning of the North Korean envoy in Kuala Lumpur to explain his remarks.
“In his press conference, the Ambassador … insinuated that … the Malaysian Government had ‘something to conceal’.
The Ambassador also alleged that Malaysia was ‘colluding and playing into the gallery of external forces’,” it said.
The ministry said the body would be handed over to the next of kin, although none had come forward. Malaysia’s health minister said autopsy results could be released as early as Wednesday.