The body of the assassinated half-brother of North Korea's leader will be sent to Pyongyang and nine Malaysians freed under a joint agreement announced Thursday, ending a bitter feud between the two countries.
Kim Jong-Nam was killed with the lethal nerve agent VX on February 13 in a Kuala Lumpur airport, triggering a diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea, which expelled each other's ambassadors and barred their citizens from leaving.
But a deal announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and confirmed by North Korean state media said the two countries would lift their respective travel bans, and Kuala Lumpur would send the body to North Korea. "Following the completion of the autopsy on the deceased and receipt of a letter from his family requesting the remains be returned to North Korea, the coroner has approved the release of the body," Najib said in a statement.
Najib did not specify who in the family had made the request. Kim's wife and children, who were living in exile in the Chinese territory of Macau, staged a vanishing act after the murder and are believed to be in hiding. The nine Malaysians prevented from leaving North Korea "have now been allowed to return to Malaysia", he said, declaring later on Twitter that the "diplomatic crisis is over".