Four prime suspects fled country, cops also hunting for three more North Koreans (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: Four prime male suspects, who were present at klia2 when Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, was killed on Feb 13, have fled Malaysia.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim said today the four men, all North Koreans, had left the country on the same day the victim died.
He declined to say to which country the suspects escaped but it is believed they did so by air.
Noor Rashid identified the men as Ri Ji Hyon, 33, Hong Song Hac, 34, O Jong-Gil, 55, and Ri Jae Nam, 57, all of whom arrived in Malaysia between Jan 31 and Feb 7 using regular North Korean passports.
He said police have alerted and are seeking the assistance of Interpol in tracking the escaped men.
"We have to gather all the evidence on their involvement and then we will get them. We have international cooperation especially with Interpol and we will use all our sources to get these people," he said.
Closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) had captured the four suspects closely moving with and observing two women, namely a Vietnamese and an Indonesian who allegedly went up to Jong-Nam and swabbed his face with purportedly a poison-laced cloth before he died.
Noor Rashid said police are also looking for three other North Korean men, believed to be still in the country, to assist in the probe.
He said while the identities of two of them are being traced, he identified the third man as Ri Ji U@James, 30.
Asked on the claims by the detained women that they were tricked into committing the act after being told by conspirators that they were being hired to act in a spoof video clip, Noor Rashid said the claim is still being investigated.
In a packed press conference attended by almost 100 local and foreign media personnel at the federal police headquarters today, Noor Rashid, who was asked on the political motive involving the North Korean government as being behind Jong-Nam's death, said that such claims are the least of police's concern.
"We are not interested in the political motive. What we are interested in is why they committed such a crime in our country. So you can put all the politics aside because this is not our job. Our job is to reveal the truth, to gather facts, to get the evidence and to bring the perpetrators to justice," he said.
Noor Rashid also reiterated police's stance on only releasing the victim's body to his next of kin.
"We need the most eligible individuals like the closest family members to make a claim on the body and this too will only be allowed after such individuals prove their ties with the victim. The post-mortem is yet to be completed as we need the results of a toxicology test," he said.
On the North Korean Embassy's statement last week which contained scathing accusations of the Malaysian government and police after it failed to receive the go-ahead to claim Jong-Nam's body, Noor Rashid said Malaysia will remain steadfast in its decision on releasing the remains.
"They can say anything. The body must be identified. We have to follow our legal and procedural orders as we are investigating a sudden and suspicious death. We have given a two-week time frame for the body to be claimed after which we will have to look into the next option which we cannot disclose," he said.
Noor Rashid said there are four individuals in police custody currently – the two women suspected to be involved in the attack on Jong-Nam – Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 29, an entertainment outlet worker who arrived here on Feb 4 via Batam and was expected to leave Malaysia on Feb 23.
The third and latest suspect to be arrested at Kuchai Lama, here on Saturday is Ri Jong-Chol, a 47-year-old North Korean who came to Malaysia on Aug 8 last year and was employed as an IT department employee in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras.
Although Jong-Chol was hired as an IT personnel, he is believed to be a highly qualified chemist.
The fourth suspect, is a 26-year-old Malaysian man who is a food caterer and said to be Siti Aisyah's boyfriend.
He was held to assist in the investigation.
Noor Rashid said police are also checking the authenticity of the passports of the detained foreign women.
Today, as the probe into the murder deepened, sources learnt that Jong-Chol had allegedly been in contact with Siti Aisyah over the past months.
Jong-Nam, 47, who was using a passport under the name Kim-Chol was to board an AirAsia flight to Macau on Feb 13 at 10.50am but at about 9am, he was approached by two women who swabbed his face with a substance that rendered him ill.
As the women fled, the victim approached airport staff and complained of pain on his face.
Writhing in pain, he was sent to a clinic at the airport before being advised by a doctor to seek treatment at the Putrajaya Hospital due to the severity of his condition.
After an ambulance rushed him over, doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
Siti Aisyah and Thi Huong had apparently maintained their innocence, claiming they were tricked into committing the act which killed the victim.