Police patrolling the areas outside the North Korean Embassy at Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama photo
PORT KLANG: Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam hopes the cause of death of Kim Jong-nam, elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, will be determined when the post-mortem result is released next week.
In the meantime, he said the ministry was waiting for the victim’s next-of-kin to identify the body and also give DNA samples for confirmation.
“On the victim’s identity, we need additional material with us, like next-of-kin, previous data of the said person … we need to get that confirmed.
“As far as our side is concerned, the cause of death of the victim should be ascertained by next week,” he told Bernama here yesterday after attending a ceremony on the arrival of the ‘Nautical Aliya’ vessel which completed its ‘Food Flotilla for Myanmar’ mission as it docked at the Boustead Cruise Centre.
Dr Subramaniam said this when asked to comment on the latest developments into Jong-nam’s murder at the klia2 on Feb 13.
Commenting further, he said the ministry would work closely with the police to facilitate identification of the victim’s body.
As of yesterday, neither family member nor next-of-kin of Jong-nam had come to provide DNA sample or identify the body.
At a packed press conference on Wednesday, Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said reports by local and foreign media claiming Jong-nam’s son, Kim Han-sol had provided blood samples to identify the body at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (IPFN), Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH) recently, were mere rumours. — Bernama