Kim Jong-nam assassination: Post-mortem completed on North Korean leader's brother as key female suspect named as 25-year-old Siti Aisyah
Malaysian police have named the women suspected of murdering North Korean playboy Kim Jong-nam as Siti Aisyah, a 25-year-old Indonesian.
Mr Kim died on Monday after being sprayed in the face with an unknown liquid and then having a handkerchief held over his face as he waited to board a plane at Malaysia International Airport.
It has believed that he was assassinated at the behest of the his older half-brother, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-un is said to have ordered the killing because he feared being overthrown by Mr Kim, who was once the heir apparent to the North Korean leadership.
The Indonesian suspect's date of birth was given as 11 February 1992, and her place of birth as Serang, Indonesia.
An unverified photocopy of a passport for a "Siti Aisyah" which carries the same personal details has been circulated on social media.
Indonesian immigration office spokesman Agung Sampurno told the Associated Press that he believed the photograph was "the same as the passport held by her."
Suspect's boyfriend arrested
The boyfriend of one of the two female suspects detained in connection with the murder of the half-brother of Kim Jong-un has also been arrested by Malaysian police.
"He was detained to facilitate investigations as he is the boyfriend of the second suspect," Selangor state police chief Abu Samah Mat told Reuters.
He was referring to the woman arrested earlier in the day, who was holding an Indonesian passport.
On Wednesday, a female suspect with Vietnamese travel documents was arrested.
Malaysian authorities have reportedly identified the poison used to kill Mr Kim, who died on Monday after collapsing in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, after an autopsy was carried out on the body against the wishes of North Korea.
Results of the examination are expected to be released later on Thursday.
Ricin is considered a prime candidate for the poison that killed Mr Kim, the Malaysia Star newspaper reported. An alternative is tetrodotoxin, a lethal compound found in the liver of the pufferfish that can be 1,200 times more lethal than cyanide.
North Korean agents have a track record of eliminating the regime's enemies with poison. An operative was arrested in Seoul in 2012 with a ballpoint pen that contained a poison-tipped needle and another pen capable of firing a projectile coated in a poisonous chemical.
Mr Kim, who was waiting to catch a flight to Macau, is reported to have had foam in his mouth when he collapsed on the airport concourse, which is consistent with an attack using poison.
North Korean officials went to the hospital where Mr Kim's body was taken and stated their objections to an autopsy being conducted and requested the body be released to their care immediately, the Star reported. Malaysian authorities declined both requests.
Police in Kuala Lumpur, meanwhile, announced the arrest at 2am on Thursday of a second woman suspected of being involved in the attack on Mr Kim. The woman was travelling on an Indonesian passport in the name of Siti Aishah.
State-run Bernama news agency reported that she has been remanded in custody for seven days along with a woman who was caught at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.
Indonesia's foreign ministry said it's trying to verify the nationality of the woman and that the passport seized by Malaysian police could have been lost or stolen.
"We have been trying to verify those reports with our embassy in Malaysia as soon as we heard about that, because this is not the first time that an Indonesian reportedly committed a crime just based on the bearer of an Indonesian passport, but then the bearer was not an Indonesian citizen," said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director of Indonesian citizen protection at the foreign ministry.
The first woman detained in connection with the case was identified as Doan Thi Huong and was travelling on a Vietnamese passport.
Suspect wore 'LOL' t-shirt
A Malaysian government source has confirmed to Reuters that the first suspect detained was the same woman whose image was captured by close circuit television footage showing her wearing a white shirt with the letters "LOL" on the front.
Police said they were still searching for four men identified on CCTV at the airport who are believed to be North Koreans.
"One of the girls was told to hold a handkerchief on the face of the victim after he'd been sprayed by the other girl," an unnamed senior police officer told The Telegraph. "She held it there for 10 seconds. She said she thought spraying him had been a 'prank'.
"We have already looked through the CCTV footage, hence we managed to arrest the taxi driver who had taken the two woman who carried out the assassination," said the senior police official, who asked not to be named.
Meanwhile Ahmad Zahid, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, said that North Korea asked for Mr Kim's body and that it will be released to the country in accordance to proper legal procedure once police and medical procedures are complete.
The body of #KimJongNam will be released to North Korea in accordance to proper legal procedure after post mortem report is out
Murder 'carried out by North Korean agents'
Lawmakers in South Korea earlier cited their spy agency as saying it suspected two female North Korean agents had murdered Mr Kim. US government sources also said they believed North Korean assassins were responsible.
In Pyongyang, celebrations are under way to mark the 75th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong-il, the late dictator and father of both Kim Jong-nam and his half-brother, Kim Jong-un.
State media reported that Kim Jong-un paid tribute to his late father, who died in December 2011, on a national holiday known as the Day of the Shining Star.
There have been no mentions of the death of Kim Jong-nam in state media and there have been suggestions that ordinary North Koreans may not know their leader even had an older half-brother as it would call into question the legitimacy of the rule of their present leader.
South Korea plans to inform them of the "brutality" of Kim Jong-un by using loudspeakers to broadcast news of his half-brother's death over the border into the North.
Kim Jong-nam 'never plotted to overthrow dictator'
Kim Jong-nam, a 46-year-old playboy who had been living in exile in Macau, was estranged from his younger half-brother, Kim Jong-un, and had been living abroad for years. He reportedly fell out of favour when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
It is believed Kim Jong-un ordered the assassination as he feared being overthrown by his older half-brother.
Mr Kim has always denied having any intentions of taking over the North Korean leadership.
According to South Korean intelligence, Mr Kim wrote to Kim Jong-un in 2012 asking his half-brother to spare his life and that of his family.
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