'DID YOU TAKE PART IN THE ASSASSINATION?'
Incredible moment journalist confronts Kim Jong-nam murder suspects during flight home containing victim’s body
THIS is the incredible moment a brave journalist confronts three men suspected of involvement in the killing of Kim Jong-nam.
The reporter, on the flight taking his body from Malaysia back to North Korea via Beijing, spotted one of the men sitting in his seat.
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Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of tyrant Kim Jong-un, was killed in Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13 with VX nerve agent, a chemical so lethal it is on a UN list of weapons of mass destruction.
Video of the encounter shows the man saying: "Did you take part in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam?"
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The stony-faced man being questioned simply stares back at him.
Turning to a second man after explaining to him he's sitting in his seat, the journalist then says: ""Kim Uk Il right?"
The suspect, wearing a white shirt, shakes his head and says "no". Bizarrely, the man later asks him for a ball point pen.
The men seen on the flight are Hyon Kwang Song, the second secretary at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and Kim Uk Il, a staff member of North Korea's state airline Air Koryo.
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The confrontation occurred after Malaysia reached a swap deal with North Korea, which freed nine Malaysian nationals stuck inside the isolated state in return for the return of Kim Jong-nam's body.
The pictures match those released by the Malaysian police earlier.
The coffin carrying the body of Kim Jong-nam - pictured last month slumped in a chair minutes after being poisoned - was also believed to have been on the same flight, though this has not been confirmed by authorities.
Malaysian media reported that a third North Korean, Ri Ji U, also known as James, who had been hiding with them at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur was also allowed to go home.
The three men and the coffin were expected to be transferred to a flight to Pyongyang.
Malaysian prosecutors have charged two women - an Indonesian and a Vietnamese - with killing him, but they are regarded by South Korean and U.S. officials as pawns in an operation carried out by North Korean agents.
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North Korea's young, unpredictable leader, Kim Jong Un, had issued a "standing order" for his elder half-brother's assassination, and there was a failed attempt in 2012, according to some South Korean lawmakers.
Malaysian police had named eight North Koreans they wanted to question in the case, including the three believed to have been given safe passage to leave Malaysia.
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Of the others, police believe four fled Malaysia on the same day as the murder and another was held for a week before being released due to insufficient evidence.
Angered by the probe North Korea slammed a travel ban on Malaysians leaving North Korea, trapping three diplomats and six family members - including four children - in Pyongyang.
Malaysia, which had previously friendly ties with North Korea responded with a ban of its own, but was left with little option but to accede to North Korea's demands for the return of the body and safe passage for the three nationals hiding in the embassy.
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