PENANG: Malaysia’s Health Ministry has not decided on what to do next with the body of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who was murdered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb 13.
The body was handed over to the Health Ministry on Friday (Mar 10), after police said they have completed their probe into his death.
Deputy Health Minister Hilmi Yahaya told reporters on Saturday that there is no regulation limiting the time that a body can be kept in hospital. "There is no time limit to claim the body, and as this is a high-profile case, we should not rush to make any decision. The ministry will decide on the next course of action," he said.
On whether the body should be handed over to Kim Jong Nam’s next-of-kin, Dr Hilmi said that it should be, according to Malaysian law. However, if the body is not claimed by his family, then Kim could be buried in Malaysia.
Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar had on Friday confirmed that the murdered North Korean man is Kim Jong Nam, nearly a month after the assassination. He did not elaborate on how authorities came to the conclusion, or whether DNA samples were still needed to identify the body.
According to a New Straits Times report on Saturday, Kim was identified by a scatter of 21 moles on his face. Among the more prominent ones include three moles lined near one of his eyes and one to the right of his lips, said the report which cited a source with knowledge of the identification process.
However, the identification by moles was refuted by the police chief who said: "No, not true. That is not enough for us."
On Friday, Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police  spoke to reporters and confirmed the man murdered in Kuala Lumpur International Airport was indeed Kim Jong Nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "We have fulfilled the requirement of the laws on his identification," he said.

Malaysian authorities had been very cautious about calling the murdered man Kim Jong Nam in public, referring to him instead as "Kim Chol," the name on one of his passports. Although he did not say whether Malaysian authorities' request for a Kim family DNA sample had been granted or whether any such sample had been used in the identification, Khalid dismissed a report in the ''New Straits Times'' on Saturday claiming Kim had been identified by the pattern of moles on his face, saying "No.  Not True.  That is not enough for us."

Two women, Indonesian  and Vietnamese , were charged with Kim's murder.  Both women protest their innocence, claiming they thought they had been hired to spray passengers with harmless baby oil, but Malaysian police say Kim died of , which the United Nations classifies as a weapon of mass destruction.  North Korean authorities claim Kim died of a heart attack. Aisyah has been the subject of protests outside the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta.  Members of workers' and religious groups waved banners saying "Siti Aisyah is only a victim of political conspiracy interests" and "Save Siti Aisyah."

The murder and its investigation have driven up tensions between North Korea and Malaysia.  Both countries temporarily barred each other's citizens from leaving, though North Korea recently allowed two Malaysian employees of the United Nations  to leave North Korea.  Nine Malaysians were believed to still be on North Korean soil, embassy workers and their families.