Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
Malaysia has deployed special-ops police at the hospital holding the body of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after reports of break-in attempts at its morgue, police officials said Wednesday. The move came as a high-ranking North Korean embassy official, Hyon Kwang Song, was identified by police as a suspect in the Feb. 13 killing of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged sibling of North Korean’s leader. Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said at a press conference that Hyon is second secretary at the embassy; he also identified an additional suspect—an employee of North Korea’s state-owned airline. Khalid declined, however, to identify the mortuary break-in suspects. “We know who they are. There is no need for me to tell you,” he told reporters. The latest details of the brazen killing come as South Korea accused the North Korean dictator of ordering the hit. Kim Jong Nam was getting ready to board a flight to Macau at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport when he was attacked and exposed to harmful chemicals. He died on the way to a hospital. Khalid said he “strongly believed” that four other suspects who fled after the murder went back to North Korea. Authorities are also searching for five others. The two women accused of carrying out the killing have claimed they thought they were taking part in a reality-television prank, though Khalid said Wednesday they were trained by a North Korean man to coat their hands with a toxin prior to the incident.