KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2017 - 23:43 | World, All, Urgent

A doctor told a Malaysian court on Wednesday that Pyongyang tried to stop him from performing an autopsy on the body of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Testifying in the trial at the Shah Alam High Court of Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 29, who are accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam in the departure hall of the budget airline terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13, the head of the pathology department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Mohamad Shah Mahmood, said he first viewed the deceased's body on Feb. 14 but did not perform a post mortem until the following day.

During cross-examination by Huong's lawyer, Shah said the autopsy was delayed a day "because of protest from the embassy."

Shah said the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur verbally protested to the police and the Foreign Ministry, which referred the matter to the attorney general's office.

The post mortem was performed on Feb. 15 after the attorney general's office gave the green light.

Shah said no next-of-kin had identified the body, and he had only Kim's DNA and none from a relative, so he could not do a DNA matching test.

The Malaysian police did not officially confirm until March that the deceased was Kim Jong Nam, as Pyongyang had insisted the dead man was Kim Chol, the name that appeared in the North Korean passport found with the body.

Malaysia said the victim was confirmed to be Kim Jong Nam after his son provided DNA samples for testing, though how and where that happened remains a mystery.

At another point in his testimony, Shah ruled out a heart attack or the drugs that Kim was taking for hypertension, diabetes and gout as the cause of death.

In his post-mortem report, Shah concluded that Kim died of VX nerve agent poisoning. VX was detected on swabs of the eye mucosa, face and blood, and traces of VX were also found on the deceased's T-shirt and blazer and his bag.

Aisyah, an Indonesian, and Huong, a Vietnamese, are charged with having common intention with four North Koreans who are still at large to kill Kim. The four North Korean were captured by CCTV in the airport terminal on the day of the murder, and took separate flights out of Malaysia hours after the attack.

A diplomatic row later erupted over Pyongyang's claim that Malaysia was smearing its reputation by linking it to the murder.

At one point, Malaysia expelled the North Korean ambassador and Pyongyang retaliated by banning Malaysian diplomats from leaving Pyongyang.

The Malaysian diplomats were only allowed to return home after Malaysia released Kim's body to the North Korean embassy and let three other North Koreans wanted by the police fly back to Pyongyang.

The prosecution has said it will prove "beyond reasonable doubt" the two women had "intention to kill" and the role played by the four North Koreans.

The defense claims the two women were duped into believing they were participating in a television show prank.