KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – 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 Saturday 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 Feb. 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 realized that it was a trap … they were plotting to tarnish my country’s reputation.”