South Korea is giving its hermit neighbor to the north a major migraine, setting up huge loudspeakers at the border to blast news about the fatal poisoning of Kim Jong Nam, according to a new report.
“Kim Jong Nam … died after being attacked by two unidentified women at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia,” a taped voice roared from the mega-size speakers directed at North Korea.
“Malaysian authorities said four suspects are North Korean nationals, including one who has been arrested,” the message blasted.
South Korea has been known to carry out thundering broadcasts in the past, prompting officials in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, to threaten to bomb the loudspeakers or drown them out with their own propaganda messages.
South Korea’s purpose for the booming broadcast was to give the facts about Jong Nam’s murder to their isolated neighbors to the north in the so-called “hermit kingdom,” Seoul’s MBC TV station reported Thursday.
Kim Jong Nam — the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — was fatally poisoned by two women at the airport on Feb. 13.
Both women were later captured and were still being detained along with a male suspect.
Police were seeking to question seven other persons of interest, including a North Korean diplomat, signaling that North Korean government officials may have been behind Jong Nam’s murder.
Malaysia has asked Interpol to put out an alert for four of the seven missing suspects, who are of North Korean descent, CNN said.
Meanwhile Thursday, North Korea accused Malaysia of breaking international law to keep Kim Jong Nam’s corpse for a “sinister purpose,” insisting the body should have been released after two autopsies.
“Malaysia is obliged to hand his body to the DPRK (North Korea) side as it made an autopsy and forensic examination of it in an illegal and immoral manner,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said in its first comments since Jong Nam’s death 10 days ago.
Malaysia has refused to release the body “under the absurd pretext” that it requires a confirmatory DNA sample from Jang Nam’s family, the state-run agency said.
“This proves that the Malaysian side is going to politicize the transfer of the body in utter disregard of international law and morality and thus attain a sinister purpose,” KCNA added.
KCNA also characterized Malaysia’s investigation as being full of “holes and contradictions” and blasted South Korea for “kicking up a fuss” while blaming North Korea for Jong Nam’s slaying, Bloomberg News reported.
“The biggest responsibility for his death rests with the government of Malaysia as the citizen of the DPRK died in its land,” the agency said, tiptoeing around identifying Jong Nam by name.
The official statement, issued in both English and Korean, repeated the North’s demand for a dual investigation with Malaysia, stressing it was ready to dispatch a delegation.
“The unfriendly attitude of the Malaysian side found a more striking manifestation in the matter of transferring his body to the DPRK side. The DPRK … will watch the future attitude of the Malaysian side.”
With Post wires