{"id":8261,"date":"2017-03-04T08:35:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T08:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/kim-jong-nam-death-north-korean-says-arrest-was-conspiracy-2\/"},"modified":"2017-03-04T08:35:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T08:35:38","slug":"kim-jong-nam-death-north-korean-says-arrest-was-conspiracy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/kim-jong-nam-death-north-korean-says-arrest-was-conspiracy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Jong-nam death: North Korean says arrest was &#8216;conspiracy&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"North Korean national Ri Jong Chol speaks to the media at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, 4 March 2017\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/3C49\/production\/_94933451_kim2.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      Ri Jong Chol arrived in Beijing early on Saturday                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">The North Korean suspect questioned in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam has said he was the victim of a conspiracy by the Malaysian authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Ri Jong Chol said his detention was a &quot;plot&quot; to &quot;damage the honour of the republic&quot;, Reuters news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>He made the comments outside the North Korea embassy in Beijing after he was deported from Malaysia on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Ri Jong Chol was released from police custody due to insufficient evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters early on Saturday, he accused Malaysian investigators of using coercion in an attempt to extract a confession.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If I just accept everything, they will make arrangements for a good life in Malaysia,&quot; Ri Jong Chol said, adding: &quot;This is when I realised that it was a trap. It was a trap to bring down the reputation of my country.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>When questioned about reports of a car discovered near the airport said to be registered in his name, he said: &quot;It was in my car garage. Malaysian police accepted this too.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Ri Jong Chol admitted to investigators that he was an expert in chemistry, but said that he worked in Malaysia &quot;importing ingredients needed for soap&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Malaysian authorities are continuing their investigation into the death of Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who was killed with nerve agent VX at an airport in the country&#039;s capital, Kuala Lumpur nearly three weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>Ri Jong Chol, who said he was not at the airport on the day of the incident, was the only North Korean held in connection with the death. <\/p>\n<p>Malaysia is seeking to question several North Koreans, including an embassy official.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why use VX?<\/li>\n<li>Who in North Korea could organise a VX murder?<\/li>\n<li>Main players in mysterious killing<\/li>\n<li>Kim Jong-nam: North Korea&#039;s critic in exile<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two women, Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam and Siti Aisyah from Indonesia, were charged on Thursday with killing Mr Kim by smearing his face with VX, a banned chemical weapon.<\/p>\n<p>Both women said they thought they were taking part in a TV prank. They have yet to make a formal plea in their case. <\/p>\n<p>Malaysia, which has condemned the use of the powerful nerve agent in the 13 February attack, is also investigating a firm thought to be used by North Korea to evade sanctions on military exports.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Kyodo\/AP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Ri Jong Chol was handed over to Malaysian immigration officials and deported on Friday                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ri Jong Chol had lived in Malaysia for three years but, according to Reuters, his work permit expired on 6 February.<\/p>\n<p>Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali said Ri Jong Chol, who was escorted out of Malaysia by two North Korean embassy officials, was blacklisted from re-entering the country.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the government said it had launched an investigation into a company called Glocom, which has been operating in Malaysia for several years.<\/p>\n<p>According to a confidential United Nations report, Glocom is run by North Korea&#039;s top intelligence agency to sell military communications equipment, in violation of UN sanctions. <\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Media captionWhy was North Korea&#039;s Kim Jong-nam killed?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Police said on Friday that an arrest warrant had been issued for 37-year-old Kim Uk-il, who works for North Korean national airline Air Koryo. He is believed to be still in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters news agency reported that security checks on North Koreans had been stepped up at all border crossings to prevent them from leaving.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Malaysia announced it was cancelling visa-free travel for visiting North Koreans, citing security reasons.<\/p>\n<p>It has not directly blamed North Korea for the attack, but there is widespread suspicion Pyongyang was responsible.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea has strongly rejected the allegations. It also rejected the findings of the post-mortem examination, having objected to it being carried out at all, and has demanded the body be handed over to them.<\/p>\n<p>It has not yet confirmed that the body is that of Kim Jong-nam, acknowledging him only as a North Korean citizen. Mr Kim was travelling using a passport under a different name.<\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-39162025 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright ReutersImage caption Ri Jong Chol arrived in Beijing early on Saturday The North Korean suspect questioned in connection with the death of Kim Jong-nam has said he was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}