“We have now established that Kim Chol is Kim Jong Nam,” Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said today, but stopped short of saying how authorities reached the conclusion.

“We have fulfilled the requirements of the laws on his identification… for the safety of the witnesses, I am not going to tell you how it was done,” he told reporters today.

Pressed further if authorities had obtained DNA samples from Jong Nam’s family members, Khalid refused to give further details.

“I’m not going to tell more than that.

I’m not going to elaborate on how it was done,” he said.

Khalid’s announcement today is the first official confirmation from Malaysia despite Pyongyang’s insistence that Jong Nam was Kim Chol, the name given on his passport.

North Korean state media have so far described him “as an ordinary citizen”.

Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, died after he was attacked by two female assailants at low-cost carrier terminal klia2 in Sepang, on Feb 13.

The incident sparked a diplomatic crisis between Malaysia and Pyongyang, with both countries sending home their ambassadors.

There has been speculation that Jong Nam’s family members had arrived in Malaysia to provide DNA samples and identify his body, a claim dismissed by police.

Khalid today also refused to comment on a video clip showing Jong Nam’s son, Kim Han Sol.

A North Korean dissident group has confirmed that the person in it was Han Sol, and said he and other family members were moved to a secure place. In the video uploaded on YouTube, Han Sol spoke in English thanking several governments.