From KCNA, (North Korean Jurists Committee) a state-run North Korean news agency: "What merits more serious attention is the fact that the unjust acts of the Malaysian side are timed to coincide with the anti-DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] conspiratorial racket [rocket] launched by the South Korean authorities.

The biggest responsibility for his death rests with the government of Malaysia as the citizen of the DPRK died in its land," KCNA said. "Malaysia is obliged to hand his body to the DPRK side, as it made an autopsy and forensic examination of it in an illegal and immoral manner. This proves that the Malaysian side is going to politicize the transfer of the body in utter disregard of international law and morality and thus attain a sinister purpose," it said.

Kim was once seen as a possible successor to his father, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but he gave up any political ambitions in favor of his younger half-brother, Kim Jong-un. The murder victim spent many years living abroad keeping low profile. Unconfirmed media reports claimed that he sent a message to his younger sibling pleading for his life after being forced into exile.

South Korean and U.S. officials say he was assassinated by North Korean agents. North Korea has not acknowledged his death.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the two women - one Vietnamese, one Indonesian - arrested last week had been paid for carrying out the fatal assault on Kim Jong Nam using a fast-acting poison.

He declined to say if they had been used by a foreign intelligence agency. Police are also holding one North Korean man, but are seeking another seven in connection with the murder.

The banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used to kill Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean ruler's outcast half brother who was poisoned last week at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, police said Friday. The announcement raised serious questions about public safety in a building that authorities went 11 days without decontaminating. The substance, deadly even in minute amounts, was detected on Kim's eyes and face, Malaysia's inspector general of police said in a written statement, citing a preliminary analysis from the country's Chemistry Department.

Dr. Bruce Goldberger, a leading toxicologist who heads the forensic medicine division at the University of Florida, said even a tiny amount of VX nerve agent — equal to a few grains of salt — is capable of killing. It can be administered through the skin, and there is an antidote that can be administered by injection. U.S. medics and military personnel carried kits with them on the battlefield during the Iraq war in case they were exposed to the chemical weapon. "It's a very toxic nerve agent. Very, very toxic," he said. "I'm intrigued that these two alleged assassins suffered no ill effect from exposure to VX. It is possible that both of these women were given the antidote."

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