North Korea demands release of three detained in Kim Jong Nam case

The North Korean embassy in Malaysia said on Wednesday that the three suspects detained in the connection with the murder of Kim Jong Nam should be immediately released.

A Vietnamese woman, an Indonesian woman and a North Korean man have been "arrested unreasonably", the embassy said in a statement released to the media.

Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport last week while preparing to board a flight to Macau.

Malaysian police said a senior official in the North Korean embassy and a staffer at its state airline, were also wanted for questioning over the murder.

In an earlier report, Malaysian police identified a senior official in the North Korean embassy  as a suspect in the murder and  another was linked to the North Korean airline. Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said both suspects been called in for questioning

CCTV footage showed the deadly assault at the airport on Nam by a woman, who is believed to have wiped a fast-acting poison on his face.

Kim Jong Nam had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the isolated state and was estranged from the young North Korean leader. "If the murder of Kim Jong Nam was confirmed to be committed by the North Korean regime, that would clearly depict the brutality and inhumanity of the Kim Jong Un regime," South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, the country's acting president, told a security council meeting.