Malaysia has said it will give Kim Jong-Nam's relatives two to three weeks to claim his body before its fate is decided.

The Malaysian government believes Mr Kim, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's half-brother, died when two women smeared his face with a nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur's airport in February.

The findings have been dismissed by North Korea, which has demanded that his body be handed over and refuses to acknowledge that Mr Kim was the victim.

Malaysian officials say a positive identification has been made and Mr Kim had a wife, possibly more than one, and children.

Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said Malaysia now hopes Mr Kim's family will claim the body which is being kept at a morgue in a Kuala Lumpur hospital.


:: What is VX nerve agent?

CCTV 'shows Kim Jong-Nam assassination'

He said: "Now with the positive identification of the body, we are told that he had a wife or wives and children.

"So we hope that those people will respond and come forward to claim the body. In the absence of that, then we will address it as a government ... in trying to find how we are going to take the next step.

"I think after the identification, we'll give ourselves about two to three weeks to solve the problem."

Relations between Malaysia and North Korea have become increasingly strained since Mr Kim's death, with tit-for-tat expulsions of each other's ambassadors.

:: North Korea's history of assassinations

North Korea also blocked Malaysians from leaving the country until what it calls a "fair settlement" of the case is reached, and Malaysia barred North Koreans from leaving.

Image: Doan Thi Huang (L) and Siti Aisyah have been charged in the case

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said negotiations with North Korea are ongoing.

Nine Malaysians - three embassy staff and members of their families - are in North Korea while about 315 North Koreans are in Malaysia.

Although Malaysia has not directly accused North Korea of being behind Mr Kim's death, there is increasing speculation that Pyongyang orchestrated it.

Investigators say the VX nerve agent used to kill him was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state laboratory and North Korea is believed to possess large quantities of chemical weapons.

North Korea demands Kim Jong-Nam's body back before post mortem

Four of the seven North Korean suspects are understood to have fled the country the day Mr Kim was killed, and police say the other three suspects, including a diplomat, are likely to be holed up in the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

CCTV footage of the attack shows two women approaching Mr Kim and smearing something in his face - he was dead within 20 minutes.

Two women, an Indonesian and a Vietnamese, have been charged with murder but say they were conned into thinking they were taking part in a harmless prank.