GEORGE TOWN: The Health Ministry will need Kim Jong-nam's previous medical and dental records in order to get a positive identification of the body and carry out a secondary identification process.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya said this was the same process used during emergency cases such as the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
"We can identify the remains through the medical record, as well as dental record.
"If we get those, we can confirm whether the body (now at Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary) is that of Kim's.
"It will not take long to carry out the identification process if we have his records, because we have an excellent forensic team with state-of-art equipment" he said today.
However, Hilmi said, the ministry has yet to obtain the records.
Jong-nam, 45, the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, was assassinated on Feb 13 at klia2 by two women who were believed to have poisoned him.
North Korea however has refused to confirm it is its Jong-nam and has been referring to him as Kim Chol, using the name on the victim's passport.