Image: Kim Jong Nam arrives at Beijing airport in Beijing, China, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 11, 2007. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS/Files
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – CCTV footage purportedly showing the deadly assault in Malaysia on the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by a woman, who is believed to have wiped a fast-acting poison on his face, was released by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV on Monday.
Kim Jong Nam died last Monday a short time after the attack in the departure hall of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where he had been preparing to take a flight to Macau.
Malaysian police have detained four suspects – a Vietnamese woman, an Indonesian woman, a Malaysian man, and North Korean man – and are on the hunt for four other North Koreans who fled the country on the day of the attack.
The grainy closed circuit television footage, which has been released on several websites, showed from two different angles a woman wearing a white top grab a man’s face from behind with both hands and walk away.
A second woman was also seen walking swiftly away in another direction after the assault, though it was unclear if she had participated in the attack.
The portly, balding middle-aged man was seen stumbling and wiping his face after the assault, and later clips showed him seeking help from people while gesturing to his face and then being escorted to a clinic.
More footage showed him inside the clinic seeking medical assistance.
Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos, and police officials were not immediately available for comment.
In a press conference on Sunday, the police said the victim complained to the airport customer service personnel that two women had “wiped his face with a liquid”.
The killing has triggered a diplomatic spat between Malaysia and North Korea, which has opposed an autopsy and demanded that the body be handed over directly.
Police have said the four North Korean suspects fled Malaysia on the day of the attack, but declined to give details. According to The Star, a Malaysian daily, they returned to Pyongyang via Jakarta, Dubai, and Vladivostok.
South Korean and U.S. officials believe Kim Jong Nam was killed by agents from the reclusive North.
South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn told a meeting of South Korea’s National Security Council on Monday that it was nearly certain that North Korea was behind the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Nam, 46, who has been living in the Chinese territory of Macau under Beijing’s protection, had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed nation.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Praveen Menon; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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