1st LD Writethru: DPRK man arrested in connection with Kim Jong Nam's death

Malaysian police said on Saturday they have detained a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) citizen suspected to be involved in the death of a DPRK man identified by Malaysian authorities as Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un.

The male suspect was identified as "Ri Jong Chol," who was born on May 6, 1970, in the DPRK, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement, citing information on the ID card in the suspect's possession, known in Malaysia as "i-Kad," used by foreign workers living in the country.

Abdul Samah Mat, police chief of Selangor state who leads a criminal investigation in the case, told Xinhua that the suspect was caught Friday after police forces raided a condominium in Selangor.

He declined to reveal the links between the DPRK man and two female suspects detained previously, one with Vietnamese travel document and the other an Indonesian. A local Malaysian male has also been detained to assist investigation.

The 46-year-old Kim Jong Nam was found dead on Monday at the Kuala Lumpur airport.

Though police has completed postmortem on the deceased, Abdul said the police still need the body in their investigation and will not transfer the body to the DPRK embassy before they receive DNA samples from the next-of-kin.

Meanwhile, DPRK Ambassador Kang Chol said on Friday that they will "categorically reject" the results of the postmortem conducted by Malaysia and demanded an immediate transfer of the body.

The DPRK embassy in Malaysia has not confirmed the identity of the suspect. Endit