Seoul - A man claiming to be the son of
the slain, estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader said
he was lying low with his mother and sister, in a video posted
online by a group that said it helped rescue them following the
murder a month ago.
The governments of the Netherlands, China, the United
States, and a fourth unnamed country provided emergency
humanitarian assistance to protect the family, the group, called
Cheollima Civil Defense, said in a statement released on
Wednesday along with the video.
An official at South Korea's National Intelligence Service
said the man in the video is Kim Han Sol, the 21-year-old son of
Kim Jong Nam, who was killed at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport on Feb. 13 by assassins who Malaysian police say used a
super-toxic nerve agent.
The intelligence official declined to go beyond identifying
Kim Han Sol. During the 40-second video posted on Wednesday, the
man says his father was killed a few days ago.
"I'm currently with my mother and my sister...," he said,
speaking in English, without disclosing his location or who he
was living with.
"We hope this gets better soon," he added.
Reuters could not independently verify the video. But the
man closely resembled Kim Han Sol, who was last interviewed on
camera in 2012 by former Finnish defence minister Elisabeth
Rehn.
Kim Han Sol is the son of Kim Jong Nam's second wife, who
had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau with Kim under
Beijing's protection after the family went into exile several
years ago.
South Korean intelligence officers say North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un had issued standing orders for the elimination of
his elder half-brother.
Dutch envoy thanked
The statement released on the website of Cheollima Civil
Defense said the organisation responded last month to an
emergency request by Kim Jong Nam's family members for
"extraction and protection".
It is not clear who is behind the group, which says it can
help high-level North Koreans escape the isolated country and
hides its digital footprint.
The website on which the statement and video was posted was
registered on Saturday, according to WHOIS database records,
which disclose website ownership.
The WHOIS database shows the group used a Panama-based
protection service to hide ownership of its website address.
The authors of the statement encouraged people to join their
organisation by writing to an email address hosted by a
Switzerland-based encrypted email service, and they requested
donations via the digital Bitcoin currency.
The group thanked the Netherlands ambassador to North and
South Korea, Lody Embrechts, for his "timely and strong
response" to the group's request for help.
Embrechts, who is based in South Korea, declined to comment
on the statement, as did the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"We are aware of these reports. The MFA cannot comment on
them," a spokeswoman said.
"The three family members were met quickly and relocated to
safety. We have in the past addressed other urgent needs for
protection," the Cheollima Civil Defense statement said, adding
that the whereabouts of the family will not be addressed.
"Cheollima" is the name given to a mythical horse in Chinese
and Korean folklore, said to be able to travel over great
distances.
The term is used in North Korean propaganda to symbolise
rapid economic development, as well as to name streets,
restaurants and other domestic brands.
Waiting for DNA
In the video, Kim held up a black North Korean service
passport in the video and opened it. The details were edited
out, but a North Korean state stamp is visible on one page, as
is a line of English text which said the passport's validity had
been extended.
North Korean service passports are issued to government
officials. They are black and embossed with gold text which says
"PASSPORT (FOR OFFICIAL TRIP)".
South Korean intelligence and U.S. officials say Kim Jong
Nam's murder was an assassination organised by North Korean
agents.
Malaysian police have identified eight North Koreans wanted
for questioning in the case, but the only people charged with
the murder so far are an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman
who police say wiped the VX nerve agent on the victim's face.
Malaysia is still waiting for DNA samples of the next of kin
to officially verify the identity, but no family member has made
contact yet.
The Southeast Asian country has said it would only release
Kim's body to the next of kin, refusing demands from North Korea
to hand over the body without an autopsy.