Malaysia says found out Kim Jong Nam's identity from child's DNA

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has used a DNA sample from one of Kim Jong-Nam's children to confirm the identity of the assassinated half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un, the deputy prime minister said Wednesday.

Investigators "confirmed the identity of the body as Kim Jong-Nam based on the sample obtained from his child", said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, without elaborating further.

Read also: Video of alleged son of Kim Jong-nam emerges

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The 45-year-old was poisoned with the deadly nerve agent VX in a brazen Cold War-style assassination on February 13 in Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

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Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for his death, but the North has rejected those claims and has never confirmed the identity of the victim, who was carrying a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol when he was attacked.

Malaysia officially confirmed his identity on Friday, but refused to say whether authorities had obtained a DNA sample from next-of-kin.

Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said at the time that concerns "for the security of the witnesses" prevented him from revealing further details.

The killing triggered a bitter row between Malaysia and North Korea, which have expelled each other's ambassadors and refused to let their citizens leave.

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Pyongyang has denounced the Malaysian investigation as an attempt to smear the secretive regime, insisting that he most likely died of a heart attack.

Kim's wife and children, who were living in exile in the Chinese territory of Macau, staged a vanishing act after the murder. There are fears his 21-year-old son, Kim Han-Sol, could be targeted next.

Three Malaysian embassy staff and six family members are stranded in Pyongyang after North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country last week, prompting a tit-for-tat move by Kuala Lumpur.

Two women - one Vietnamese and one Indonesian - have been arrested and charged with the murder. Airport CCTV footage shows them approaching the victim and apparently smearing his face with a piece of cloth.