Malaysian police made a third arrest on Thursday in their hunt for the people involved in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The third person, whose nationality was not disclosed, was the friend of an Indonesian woman who was detained earlier in the day in connection with the killing of Kim Jong Nam at the airport in the Malaysian capital on Monday, police said.
“He was detained to facilitate investigations as he is the boyfriend of the second suspect,” said Abu Samah Mat, the police chief in Selangor state, told Reuters. (For a graphic on North Korea’s Kim family tree click: here)
The Indonesian woman was remanded in custody for seven days along with another woman, who held a Vietnamese travel document, who was caught trying to leave the country through the budget airline terminal of Kuala Lumpur airport on Wednesday, the Bernama state news agency reported.
Kim Jong Nam, 46, was assaulted at the same airport on Monday with what was believed to be a fast-acting poison as he was about to leave on a flight to Macau.
He sought help, collapsed and died on his way to hospital.
Lawmakers in South Korea earlier cited their spy agency as saying it suspected two female North Korean agents had murdered Kim. U.S. government sources also said they believed North Korean assassins were responsible.
Kim Jong Nam had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed state, and he had also expressed fears for this safety.
South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers in Seoul that the young, unpredictable North Korean leader had issued a “standing order” for his elder half-brother’s assassination, and that there had been a failed attempt in 2012.
North Korean agents have killed rivals abroad before.