Malaysia detains 2 women over killing of half-brother of North Korean leader

Malaysia has detained a second woman in connection with the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, state news agency Bernama reported on Thursday, citing the inspector general of police.

The woman arrested Thursday was holding an Indonesian passport that identified her as 25-year-old Siti Aishah, a Malaysian police statement said.

Malaysian police on Wednesday detained a woman holding Vietnam travel papers and said they were looking for a "few" other foreign suspects in connection with the apparent assassination.

Legislators in South Korea had earlier cited their spy agencyas saying it suspected two female North Korean agents hadmurdered Kim, and U.S. government sources also toldReuters they believed North Korean assassins were responsible.

The portly and gregarious Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son oflate North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was assaulted on Mondaymorning in the departure hall of Kuala Lumpur InternationalAirport and died on the way to hospital, Malaysian police said.

• KimJong-un'shalf-brother assassinated by North Korea agents, South alleges

The first woman detained at Kuala Lumpur airport was identifiedfrom CCTV footage at the airport and was alone when she wasapprehended, police said in a statement.

Media had earlier published a grainy CCTV-captured image ofa young woman wearing a white shirt with the letters "LOL" onthe front.

Documents she carried were in the name of Doan Thi Huong,showed a birth date of May 1998 and birthplace of Nam Dinh,Vietnam, police said.

"Police are looking for a few others, all foreigners,"Deputy Inspector-General Noor Rashid Ibrahim told Reuters,declining to give their nationalities or gender.

South Korean intelligence believes Kim Jong-nam waspoisoned, the legislatorsin South Korea's capital, Seoul, said.

The spy agency told them that the young and unpredictableNorth Korean leader had issued a "standing order" for hishalf-brother's assassination, and that there had been a failedattempt in 2012.

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"The cause of death is strongly suspected to be a poisoningattack," said South Korean legislatorKim Byung-kee, who wasbriefed by the spy agency.

Kim had been at the airport's budget terminal to catch aflight to Macau on Monday when someone grabbed or held his facefrom behind, after which he felt dizzy and sought help at aninformation desk, Malaysian police official Fadzil Ahmat said.

According to South Korea's spy agency, Kim Jong-namhad beenliving, under Beijing's protection, with his second wife in theChinese territory of Macau, the legislatorssaid. One of them saidKim Jong-nam also had a wife and son in Beijing.

Kim had spoken out publicly against his family's dynasticcontrol of the isolated state.

Deathpoints to 'brutality' of regime

"If the murder of Kim Jong-nam was confirmed to be committedby the North Korean regime, that would clearly depict thebrutality and inhumanity of the Kim Jong-unregime," SouthKorean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is also actingpresident, told a security meeting.

The meeting was called in response to Kim Jong-nam's death,news of which first emerged late on Tuesday.

South Korea is acutely sensitive to any sign of instabilityin isolated North Korea, and is still technically in a state ofwar with its impoverished and nuclear-armed neighbour, whichcarried out its latest ballistic missile test on Sunday.

Malaysian police said Kim held a passport under the name KimChol, with a birth date that made him 46.

Kim Jong-nam was known to spend a significant amount of timeoutside North Korea, travelling in Macau and Hong Kong as wellas mainland China, and has been caught in the past using forgedtravel documents.

No mention in North Korean media

His body was taken on Wednesday to a second hospital, wherean autopsy was being performed. North Korean embassy officialshad arrived at the hospital and were coordinating withauthorities, police sources said.

There was no mention of Kim Jong-nam's death in North Koreanmedia.

In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said China wasaware of the reports and closely following developments.

Yoji Gomi, a Japanese journalist who wrote a 2012 book onKim Jong-nam,said Kim's media appearances, which increasedaround the time South Korean intelligence said he was targetedfor assassination, may have been an attempt to protect himself.

"I now have the impression that even he may have had a senseof danger, so he began exposing himself in the media and statinghis opinions to protect himself and counter North Korea," Gomitold a talk show on Japan's NTV.

North Korean agents have killed rivals abroad before.

South Korea's spy agency said Kim Jong-namwrote a letter toKim Jong-unin 2012 asking that the lives of him and his familybe spared, one of the legislatorssaid.

"Kim Jong-unmay have been worried about more and more NorthKorean elites turning against him after Thae Yong Ho defected tothe South," said Koh Yu-hwan, an expert on the North Koreanleadership at Dongguk University in Seoul, referring to lastyear's defection by North Korea's deputy ambassador in London.

• North Korea's Jang Song Thaek executed, sparking purge fears

Numerous North Korean officials have been purged or killedsince Kim Jong-un took power following his father's death in2011. Those include his uncle Jang Song-thaek, who wasconsidered the country's second most-powerful person and wasbelieved to have been close to Kim Jong-nam.

Jang was executed on Kim Jong-un's orders in 2013.