Health Ministry will wait for police instruction on how to manage Kim Jong Nam's body

As the identity of Kim Jong Nam was confirmed by using a DNA sample from one of his children, the Health Ministry will wait for further instruction from police on how to manage his body.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the instruction or any decision had to come from police because it was a medico-legal case and the ministry would follow whatever decision made by them.

"If they (next of kin) have given instruction to the police on how to manage the body and the police feel that the instruction given is sufficient from the legal point of view and the police give us instruction on what to do, we will follow it.

"How the body should be managed depends on what the instructions are and it is the family's right to determine what needs to be done and we will follow what the family has decided or informed the police," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby, here, today.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday said police were able to confirm the identity of Jong Nam, who was killed last month at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2, using a DNA sample from one of his children.

Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was allegedly killed by two foreign women who wiped his face with the VX nerve agent while he was waiting to board a flight to Macau on Feb 13.

Jong Nam, who carried a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol, died on the way to Putrajaya Hospital.

On the H5N1 cases in Kelantan, Dr Subramaniam said so far there had been no chicken-to-human transmissions and the infection should be contained within the animal population.

However, he said, the ministry and its relevant departments were on standby and he stressed that there was no need to prevent people from going to the state.

On the declaration of a state of disaster by the Kelantan government on the outbreak, Dr Subramaniam said that was within the state government's prerogative.

"That's their definition of how to mobilise. They may be concerned over it spreading to many areas and want more resources beyond what they have in the specific departments to deal with the outbreak," he added. -- Bernama