23 February 2017
North Korea blamed Malaysia today for the death of one of its citizens there last week and accused it of an “unfriendly attitude” in a scenario drawn up by South Korea, which has said Pyongyang agents assassinated the North Korean leader’s half-brother.
Malaysia had initially told North Korea the person bearing a diplomatic passport had died after suffering a heart attack at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb 13, Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency said.
KCNA, citing a spokesman for a state committee, said Malaysia quickly changed its position and started to complicate the matter after reports surfaced in South Korea the man was poisoned to death.
“What merits more serous attention is the fact that the unjust acts of the Malaysian side are timed to coincide with the anti-DPRK conspiratorial racket launched by the South Korean authorities,” KCNA said, using the North’s formal name of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
KCNA, in the first official media report of the killing, did not name the person who died on the way to the hospital or acknowledge that he was the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, referring to him only as “a citizen of the DPRK”.
“The biggest responsibility for his death rests with the government of Malaysia as the citizen of the DPRK died in its land,” the report said.
Malaysian police yesterday named a North Korean diplomat along with a state airline official who are wanted for questioning over the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the 46-year-old older half-brother of Kim Jong Un.
Malaysia’s police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said both officials were in Malaysia but could not confirm if they were in the North Korean embassy.
So far, police have identified a total of eight North Koreans suspected of being linked to the killing. One is in custody.
Malaysia has denied North Korea’s request for the body to be handed over to its embassy directly, saying it would be released to the next of kin, although none has come forward.
The KCNA report accused Malaysia of breaking international law by conducting autopsies on a person bearing a diplomatic passport.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese woman suspected of helping to kill the North Korean leader’s half-brother was a keen singer whose Facebook pages featured pouting portraits and pictures of parties.
Four days before Kim Jong Nam was killed at a Malaysian airport, she appears to have posted a picture of herself wearing a shirt emblazoned with the acronym “LOL”, similar to the one on the fleeing suspect caught on CCTV cameras.
Doan Thi Huong worked at an entertainment outlet, according to Malaysian police, who have arrested her over the murder of Kim Jong Nam.
On a rice farm in northern Vietnam, the family whose daughter’s details match those from Malaysian police said it rarely knew where she was since she left home a decade ago aged 18.
The last post on a Facebook page in the name of “Ruby Ruby”, which family members confirmed to be one of Huong’s accounts, is dated Feb 11 from Kampong Besut, Malaysia.
“I want to sleep more but by your side,” the post reads above a picture of her, eyes closed and wrapped up in bed.
Malaysian police have said Huong and an Indonesian woman wiped a liquid, containing an as yet unidentified toxic substance, on Kim Jong Nam’s face at Kuala Lumpur’s budget air terminal (klia2) on Feb 13.
The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un died soon afterwards.
Huong was described by police as an “entertainment outlet employee”, but they did not give details of where she had been employed or what her immigration status was.
Among the links on another Facebook account, which the family also said featured pictures of Huong, was one to the page of the Vietnam Idol talent show. This account was in the name “Bella Tron Tron Bella” – Chubby Bella. There were no posts after November.
A woman bearing a close resemblance to Huong sang on the show as contestant number 67816 on 3 June 2016.
Facial recognition tools give a match to the pictures released by Malaysian police of Huong in custody.
The contestant gave Nam Dinh as her home town – the same as Huong’s according to passport details from the Malaysian police – but her name was given as Dinh Thi Khuyen.
She left the show in the first round.
A member of the Vietnam Idol casting team declined to comment on the appearance and its spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment.
“Can I sing you a song tonight?” she wrote in a Facebook post on March 24 last year. “Reply the fastest and put your phone number in the comment. I will call and sing for you.”
Family members mostly work the rice paddies around their home in Nam Dinh, in the Red River Delta southeast of Hanoi.
Huong only visited occasionally, they said, and she was vague about where she had been. She is now 28.
Her father, who fought for the North in the Vietnam War, lost part of his leg in the fighting. Vietnamese authorities had been in touch since the arrest, he said.
“They only say they will support Huong as she is Vietnamese, but did not tell me if she is really a suspect.
“Even though I am her father I cannot control things that happened when she is out there. I cannot know,” said Doan Van Thanh, 63, who works as a security guard in the local market.
Family members said they only found out she was abroad from the media. They had thought she was working in Hanoi.
So far, Vietnamese officials have only confirmed to media that investigations continue and they are in touch with Malaysia.
A South Korean police official said Huong visited the holiday destination of Jeju Island in November for four days and they were looking into what she may have been doing there, but declined to provide further details.
Of 65 friends on the “Ruby Ruby” Facebook page, 27 have Korean names – 56 of the friends are men.
One status update on the first Facebook account was posted in the Korean language on March 23 last year, saying “I love you, I miss you”, although it did not use words that would be expected for someone familiar with the language.
Most photographs in the accounts are of Huong attending parties, in hotel rooms or portraits. In many she blew kisses to the camera.
Cosmetics, clothing and fast food shops were among Huong’s likes on Facebook. Her place of education was given as Harvard, although the family did not believe that was true.
On Jan 3, Huong posted a picture of a boarding pass from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur. Family members said Huong was last at home in Nam Dinh from Jan 25-29.
Huong also appears to feature in another online video. Posted last April, it is on the channel of a Vietnamese YouTuber who gets women to kiss him in the street.
The woman in that video matches the one in the latest police photo from Malaysia.
In the video she is shown giggling before a kiss with the man on a park bench.
In the photo, she wears no makeup and stares uncertainly towards the camera.
Original Source: therakyatpost.com
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