Family given priority to claim Kim Jong Nam's body - police

The Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) will give priority to the family of Kim Jong-nam to claim his body from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital's (HKL) National Institute of Forensic Medicine, said Selangor police chief Datuk Abdul Samah Mat.

He said the RMP had received a request from the North Korean embassy to claim the body.

"Only the North Korean embassy has asked to claim the body, but our priority is the 'next-of-kin' and for them to identify the body, and following that, to ascertain who is the rightful claimant.

"The post-mortem has been completed, but the post-mortem results have not been released yet," he said when contacted by Bernama News Channel (BNC) here today.

Last Monday, Jong-nam was at the KL International Airport 2 at 8am to board a flight to Macau an hour later when a woman suddenly covered his face with a cloth laced with what is believed to be poison.

Jong-nam, who had used a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol, sought help at a customer service counter at klia2 and was rushed to the Putrajaya Hospital but died on the way. -- BERNAMA