'No release of body without DNA test'

The body of Kim Jong-Nam, the assassinated half-brother of North Korea's leader, will not be released until his family have provided DNA samples, Malaysia said yesterday, despite a request from Pyongyang.

Detectives in Kuala Lumpur are trying to get to the bottom of the cloak-and-dagger murder that South Korea says was carried out by poison-wielding female agents working for their secretive northern neighbour.

Forensic specialists yesterday began testing samples from the dead man's body to try to determine the toxin that was apparently sprayed in his face as he readied to board a plane earlier this week.

North Korean diplomats objected to the post-mortem examination, Malaysian officials say, but Kuala Lumpur has stood firm, and said yesterday it would not release the body until procedures were complete.

"So far no family member or next of kin has come to identify or claim the body. We need a DNA sample of a family member to match the profile of the dead person," Selangor state police chief Abdul Samah Mat told AFP.

"North Korea has submitted a request to claim the body, but before we release the body we have to identify who the body belongs to," he said.