Deported Korean says Malaysia threatened to harm his family

Kuala Lumpur: A North Korean chemist deported from Malaysia accused police of threatening to kill his family unless he confessed to the assassination of the half-brother of North Korea's leader, calling it a plot to tarnish his country's honor.

Ri Jong Chol spoke to reporters in Beijing early Sunday while on his way to Pyongyang. Malaysian authorities have said there's insufficient evidence to charge Ri over Kim Jong Nam's killing at Kuala Lumpur's airport on February 13.

Ri was detained four days after the attack but police never said what they believed his role was. Two women one Indonesian, one Vietnamese have been charged with murder after police said they smeared Kim's face with VX, a banned nerve agent considered a weapon of mass destruction.

Ri said he wasn't at the airport the day Kim was killed but that police accused him of being a mastermind and presented him with "fake evidence." He said they showed him a picture of his wife and two children, who were staying with him in Kuala Lumpur, and threatened to kill them.

"These men kept telling me to admit to the crime, and if not, my whole family would be killed, and you too won't be safe. If you accept everything, you can live a good life in Malaysia," Ri said.

"This is when I realised that it was a trap ... They were plotting to tarnish my country's reputation."

Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment today.

Immigration Director-General Mustafar Ali said Friday that Ri has been blacklisted from re-entering Malaysia.

Malaysia is looking for seven other North Korean suspects, four of whom are believed to have left the country on the day of the killing. 

Three others, including an official at the North Korean Embassy and an employee of Air Koryo, North Korea's national carrier, are believed to still be in Malaysia.

Police yesterday issued an arrest warrant for the Air Koryo employee, Kim Uk Il, but didn't say why he is a suspect.

Police say he arrived in Malaysia on January 29, about two weeks before Kim was killed.

Kim's death has unleashed a diplomatic battle between Malaysia and North Korea. Malaysia said it was scraping visa-free entry for North Koreans, while the Foreign Ministry said it was "greatly concerned" about the use of the nerve agent.

Malaysia has not directly accused North Korea of being behind the killing, but the ministry statement came hours after a North Korean envoy rejected a Malaysian autopsy finding that VX killed Kim.