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Reuters

Interpol has issued a red notice, the closest to an international arrest warrant, for four North Koreans wanted in connection with the murder of Kim Jong-nam, Malaysia’s police chief said on Thursday.
The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was murdered on February 13, when Malaysian police say two women - an Indonesian and a Vietnamese - smeared super toxic VX nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The two women were charged with murder earlier this month, but police are looking for seven North Korean suspects in connection with the killing, including four who are believed to have made their way back to Pyongyang.

Police requested Interpol’s help to apprehend the suspects last month.
“We have obtained a red notice for the four North Korean nationals who were at the airport on the day of the incident and who have since left... we are hoping to get them through Interpol,” police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.
An Interpol red notice is a request to find and provisionally arrest someone pending extradition.
The murder has resulted in a diplomatic meltdown between two countries with once strong ties.
North Korea has questioned the Malaysian investigation into the murder and refused to acknowledge that the man murdered is Kim Jong-nam.
Speaking at the North Korean embassy in Beijing at an unusual and hastily arranged news conference, diplomat Pak Myong-ho blamed the United States and South Korea.

“The recent incident that occurred in Malaysia was clearly a political scheme by the US and South Korea aimed at hurting the DPRK’s reputation and overthrowing the DPRK regime,” Pak said, using the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The only parties that will benefit from this incident are the enemy countries,” Pak told a hand-picked audience of reporters in a small, sparsely decorated room inside the embassy.
At the time of the killing, Kim was carrying a diplomatic passport bearing another name, but Malaysian authorities said on Wednesday Kim Jong-nam’s identity had been confirmed using DNA samples taken from one of his children.

Watch: death of Kim Jong-nam sparks row between Malaysia and North Korea


Malaysia has also refused demands by the North Korean government for Kim Jong-nam’s body to be released, saying that the remains can only be handed over to the next-of-kin under local laws. No family member has come forward to claim the body.
State news agency Bernama, quoting Malaysian deputy police chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim, said on Thursday that the family had given consent for Malaysia to manage Kim Jong-nam’s remains. Noor Rashid did not say when or where the consent was given.
Kim Jong-nam had been living in Macau under Beijing’s protection after the family went into exile several years ago. He had been known to speak out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of North Korea.
A man claiming to be the son of Kim Jong-nam appeared in video footage last week, saying he was lying low with his mother and sister.
An official at South Korea’s National Intelligence Service confirmed the man in the video was Kim Han-sol, the 21-year-old son of Kim Jong-nam.
Watch: video of man claiming to be Kim Jong-nam’s son


Malaysia is one of the few countries outside China that has for decades maintained ties with North Korea.
But as relations soured, Malaysia recalled its envoy from Pyongyang and expelled the North Korean ambassador.
North Korea then barred nine Malaysians - three diplomats and their six family members - from leaving the country, prompting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to describe the action as “hostage” taking. The Southeast Asian country followed with a tit-for-tat action stopping North Koreans from leaving.
Najib told reporters Malaysia will begin formal negotiations with North Korea “when the time is right”, clarifying previous reports saying that talks between the two countries had begun on Monday.


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Kim Jong-un’s purges exacerbate climate of fear, tensions in North Korea, peninsula

Kim Jong-nam

Interpol issues ‘red notice’, four North Koreans wanted in Kim murder probe

A North Korea national flag above the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

FILE - This May 4, 2001, file photo shows Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in Narita, Japan. Kim Jong Nam, 46, was targeted Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, and later died on the way to the hospital according to a Malaysian government official. Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says the identity of Kim Jong Nam, who was killed last month, was confirmed with the DNA sample from one of his children. (AP Photos/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

This Thursday, March 16, 2017 screen grab from the Interpol wanted persons web page shows the red notice list of suspects including North Koreans, top center and right, and bottom left and center. Malaysia's National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar separately told reporters that the North Korean suspects, who are believed to have fled Malaysia on the same day of killing of Kim Jong Nam, exiled half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, have been put on the Interpol's red notice list, which is a request to locate and hold a person pending extradition. (Interpol via AP)

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