Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
mk-logo
News
Police, atomic agency to sweep KLIA2 for 'radioactive waste'

Police will cooperate with the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) to check all the locations visited by the suspects in the murder case of Kim Jong-nam in the KL International Airport 2 (KLIA2) on Feb 13.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the collaboration was due to the possibility of radioactive waste from the use of the chemical 'Ethyl S-2-Diisopropylaminoethyl Methylphonothiolate or VX nerve agent as a chemical weapon.

Previously a preliminary analysis by the Malaysian Chemistry Department revealed the VX nerve agent that was associated with the death of Jong-nam, elder half-brother of North Korean Kim Jong-un.

"We will get the AELB forensic experts to go to the locations to sweep and to see whether the radioactive waste is still there," he told reporters today at KLIA before leaving for Makkah to perform the 'umrah' (minor Haj).

This is the second time the media bumped into Khalid at KLIA. Prior to that about 150 local and international media personnel had attended a media conference by the Immigration Department, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) and Airlines Operating Committee on efforts to reduce waiting time at the airports with the hope of getting the latest updates on Jong-nam's murder.

Jong-nam was at the KLIA2 at 8am on Feb 13 to board a flight to Macau when an hour later two women suddenly appeared before him and wiped his face with the palms of their hands which contained a poisonous liquid.

Jong-nam, who had come to Malaysia on Feb 6 and carried a passport bearing the name Kim Chol, died on the way to the Putrajaya Hospital.

Following Jong-nam's murder, the police have arrested four people - two women, one holding an Indonesian passport and the other a Vietnamese passport; and two men, one a Malaysian and the other a North Korean.

The Malaysian has been released on police bail.

Asked whether the female suspects in the murder of Jong-nam had any effect from the chemical used, Khalid said one of them suffered from vomiting.

- Bernama

ADS