Mystery how arrested North Korean paid his way
Print Edition
RI Jong Chol, a North Korean arrested in the probe into last week’s killing of the half-brother of the country ’s leader, lived in Malaysia for more than three years without working at the company registered on his employment permit or receiving a salary.
Ri, 47, had a Malaysian work visa that showed he was an employee of Tombo Enterprise. But the owner of the company said he had never worked a day there or drawn a salary from the small herbal medicine firm.
Chong Ah Kow said he had facilitated Ri’s working visa by stating in supporting documents that he was a product development manager in the company’s IT department earning 5,500 ringgit (US$1,230) per month. The visa was renewed once, he said, in June 2016.
“It was just a formality, just documents, I never paid him,” Chong, a Malaysian, said in an interview. “I don’t know how he survives here. I don’t know how he gets money.”
Chong, a frequent traveler to North Korea, said he was just trying to “help out” Ri. He has been interviewed by police and said he was ready to face any consequences from submitting false information to the government.
Chong, who has remained friends with Ri, said the North Korean lived with his wife and two children in Kuala Lumpur.
It is not known if Ri had any other employment or source of income.
Ri has been arrested as a key suspect in the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong Un.
Police have not specified what role he may have played in last week’s brazen killing at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Chong said Ri had rented an apartment in Kuchai Lama, a middle-class Kuala Lumpur suburb. Three-bedroom apartments in the neighbourhood typically rent for about 1,500-2,000 ringgit per month, according to property websites.
Ri’s daughter studies at HELP University, a fee-paying private college in a western Kuala Lumpur suburb that bestowed a honorary doctorate in economics on Kim Jong Un in 2013 for his “untiring efforts for the education of the country and the well-being of the people.”
The university has confirmed she is a student there.
Chong said he and Ri met in 2013 when the North Korean came to him in Kuala Lumpur, and said he was related to the inventor of a mushroom extract with anti-cancer effects. Chong said he had visited North Korea about 10 times and admires the country for its culture.
“They have great shows,” Chong said. Ri was a “soft-spoken, courteous, humble man — just like other North Koreans.”
Ri met Chong infrequently, driving with his daughter to Chong’s office in Kuala Lumpur. The men discussed business opportunities, such as palm oil importation, with Ri’s daughter translating from Korean into English and vice versa. Nothing, however, came from the talks, Chong said.
The duo last met in January.
Malaysia is about the only foreign country that a North Korean can easily enter, thanks to a visa-free policy for visitors that is largely reciprocated by Pyongyang. Since the 1980s, North Korea has used the Southeast Asian nation as a hub to promote its strategic and business interests, legitimate and otherwise, some analysts say.
However, ties are under strain following the killing of Kim Jong Nam.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
