Ohhhh shit: A second woman has been detained following the death of Kim Jong-nam, the exiled half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday.
Malay state media Bernama offered very few details, but simply reported that she had been detained and it was in connection with the murder. Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told the news agency that an official statement would be released later today.
She’s the second woman to be detained in relation to the murder, with police detaining another woman on Wednesday after identifying her from CCTV footage.
Kim Jong-nam, 46, was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Monday, telling medical workers before he died that he was attacked by a chemical spray that felt like “someone grabbed or held his face from behind.”
Chinese media agency Oriental Daily reports that the women were instructed to spray Kim by a group of four men at the airport, believing it to be part of a “prank”.
However, South Korea‘s intelligence agency claims that the two women are North Korean assassins. (The first woman arrested was travelling on a Vietnamese passport; no such details have been released about the second).
“Police are looking for a few others, all foreigners,” Deputy Inspector-General Noor Rashid Ibrahim told Reuters, but did not comment on their nationalities or genders.
South Korean media also reports that Kim Jong-un had issued a “standing order” for his older half-brother’s assassination several years ago, as he became increasingly paranoid and sought to maintain his control on North Korea.
According to the ABC, the director of the South’s National Intelligence Service, Lee Byong-ho, said that the North Korean ruler had received a letter in 2012 from his half-brother, pleading with him to withdraw the standing order.
There was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the older brother’s life later that year.
