19.02.2017
KBS News
By Gim Yudae
Video at link
Ri Jeongcheol being led away by Malaysian police.
Detained suspect Ree Jeongcheol and other absconded North Korean suspects [in Gim Jongnam’s murder] entered Malaysia six months ago. They were sent to a safehouse where they prepared for the assassination.
Reporter: He was seized by police making a surprise raid and didn’t resist. The atmosphere at his apartment now is quiet, here in front of the spot where Ri Jeongcheol was seized by police. Entry into the apartment building is now controlled, but I was able to enter with the co-operation of a local resident. It looks like the police opened this door at the time of the raid. There seems to be no-one inside now. The door was firmly closed at first. These apartments are used by the middle classes and cost around ₩400,000 [£280/$347] per month. Through running an IT business Ree Jeongcheol maintained a high standard of living. Given that he maintained his family here with him [in Malaysia] it is not understood how he managed his living expenses. A person who lives in the same apartment block said: “He was living here with his wife. They appeared to be a normal, standard family.” [Yet] because the apartment here is not just an innocent family home, the local media see it as a safehouse for North Korean agents. Another resident of the block said: “There are a lot of restaurants and apartments [in the area? In Kuala Lumpur? In Malaysia?] and a lot of different ethnicities. A family from North Korea wouldn’t stick out as anything different.”
Ree entered Malaysia in August of last month. Just ten minutes outside of the city centre and 40 minutes from the airport, the apartment is conveniently located for local liaisons. It seems that [the assassins] used the cover of being IT company employees to disguise their identity, and they prepared the crime by attracting Vietnamese and Indonesian women in the field.
*Ree’s name, 리정철, follows North Korean orthographic conventions. The surname 리/李 (“Ree”) is typically written and pronounced as 이 (“Ee”) in South Korea.