Malaysian authorities said Thursday they have detained an Indonesian woman and a Malaysian man in connection with the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother, one day after arresting a woman with a Vietnamese passport.

The second woman, 25-year-old Siti Aishah from Serang in Banten province, was alone and carrying an Indonesian passport when caught by the authorities. Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia’s inspector general of police, said in a statement that they had “positively identified” her from CCTV footage at the airport. The man is believed to be Aishah’s boyfriend, local media reported.

 

Aishah appeared at the court early Thursday along with the first woman, 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong, who was arrested Wednesday after the release of CCTV images showing a woman matching her description.

The pair was given seven days in detention in line with the request of a regional district headquarters. The remand decision was “unusual” and reflected “security concerns,” Malaysia’s Sun daily reported, citing Selangor state police Chief Datuk Abdul Samah Mat.

Authorities have said there were at least four men involved in the attack, but it remains unknown whether the nabbed man is one of them. Selangor state police Chief Abdul Samah Mat told AFP that they are “looking for more suspects,” but declined to say how many were being sought after or their nationalities.

Other news reports suggested the first woman testified that she took part in the plot without knowing it was Kim Jong-nam. She also said she thought it was a “prank” as allegedly told to her by four men who approached her and her female friend at the airport on their way to board a flight back home. The men allegedly included those with North Korean and Vietnamese backgrounds. But the reports could not be confirmed immediately.

Kim Jong-nam, 46, is believed to have been killed with poison by two female secret operatives while trying to check in for a flight to Macau at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday morning. He was pronounced dead on his way to a hospital.

A seven-hour autopsy was carried out late Wednesday and the results are expected to be released later this week following a detailed analysis.

Officials confirmed a toxic spray was used in the killing but the type of substance used remains unclear. North Korean operatives are widely known to favor tiny guns or pens loaded with neostigmine bromide, which is estimated to be about five times stronger than potassium cyanide, but it is possible the spray contained something else.

Japan’s NHK broadcaster reported later in the day that a nerve gas such as VX appears to have been employed, citing multiple Seoul government officials. The tasteless and odorless liquid, a chemical warfare tool, is known to be much more lethal than sarin.

“The National Intelligence Service is closely looking into if it was a toxic chemical that has never been used before,” said Rep. Lee Cheol-woo of the Liberty Korea Party who chairs the parliamentary intelligence committee, in an interview with BBS Radio. The panel was briefed on the murder by the spy agency Wednesday.

The lawmaker also raised the possibility that the first arrested woman may have been trained by North Koreans to claim a false Vietnamese identity or use a fake travel document. North Korean agents previously caught in South Korea, as well as Kim Jong-nam himself, were found to have traveled on forged passports.

“It’s difficult to judge because there are some clumsy elements there. Or she could be someone who got suddenly involved for some reason but we’d better wait and see,” Lee added.

Jakarta’s Foreign Ministry also said it will look into Aishah’s nationality, saying millions of Indonesians work in nearby Malaysia and the passports seized by the Malaysian police could have been lost or stolen.

“We have been trying to verify those reports with our embassy in Malaysia as soon as we heard about that, because this is not the first time that an Indonesian reportedly committed a crime just based on the bearer of an Indonesian passport, but then the bearer was not an Indonesian citizen,” Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director for citizen protection at the ministry, was quoted as saying by AP.

Meanwhile, controversy erupted after Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Thursday the country will return the body in line with Pyongyang’s request.

The Kim Jong-un regime has reportedly sent senior officials to Kuala Lumpur, with North Korean officials including embassy staff being spotted visiting the hospital’s forensics unit in diplomatic vehicles Wednesday. They demanded the body be released without a postmortem examination and then attended the autopsy after the request was turned down.

“We will facilitate the request by any foreign government although there are procedures to be followed,” Zahid was quoted by AFP as telling reporters after a meeting with business leaders.

At a separate news conference, the deputy premier confirmed the man was Kim Jong-nam and he carried “two different identities” but the passport bearing the name Kim Chol was authentic.

He also said the case would not affect relations with Pyongyang, saying Kuala Lumpur wants to “maintain and we would like to strengthen our relationship with any foreign country that has established their embassy here.”

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)