Subra: North Korea must abide by Malaysian law on Jong-nam postmortem

- Bernama

SERDANG: North Korea must abide by the provisions of the law set by Malaysia in terms of postmortems conducted in the country, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam (pic).

He said the Cabinet on Wednesday had also decided to continue with the forensics process, which was completed on Thursday, because the death of the Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had taken place in Malaysia.

"North Korea can reject or show disapproval. But we are doing things according to our law. Something happened in our country. We don't do it according to their law.

"If murder or death (occurs) in our country, there is a process we go through. There is no short cut in forensics as far as we are concerned," he told reporters after the opening of the Inter-Varsity Sports Fest 2017 here Saturday.

Dr Subramaniam was commenting on North Korean ambassador to Malaysia Kang Chol's statement on Friday accusing Malaysia of purposely rejecting its claim for the remains of Jong-nam.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has also dismissed North Korea's allegation that Malaysia was purposely delaying the process to release and send home Jong-nam's remains.

Asked whether bilateral ties between Malaysia and North Korea would be affected, Dr Subramaniam said the relationship between both countries was under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry.

On the postmortem results, he said: "We will release it once it is ready, and hope to release it within this week. We are currently waiting for the toxicology report, which is an important test to confirm.

"Once it is done, the results will be given to the police as early as we can and it is up to the police to release it. We want to get correct results before releasing it," he said.

On Friday, Selangor Police Chief Datuk Seri Abdul Samah Mat said priority to claim the body was accorded to close family members to assist with identification.

However, to date, only the North Korean embassy here has come forward to claim the remains.

Jong-nam, 45, was allegedly killed by two women who splashed his face with a chemical at the KL International Airport 2 departure hall at about 9am on Monday. He was about to leave for Macau. - Bernama