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The forensics wing of the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, where the body of Kim Jong-nam is being held. Malaysian officials said a DNA sample from one of his children had been used to confirm his identity. Credit Lillian Suwanrumpha/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Malaysian authorities sought on Wednesday to definitively put to rest a nagging question about the brazen assassination of a man in Kuala Lumpur’s international airport last month: They said he was indeed Kim Jong-nam, estranged half brother of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, because they had DNA confirmation from a relative.

The police compared the DNA of Mr. Kim with a sample provided by one of his children, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters at a news conference.

“I once again confirm that the body is that of Kim Jong-nam,” Mr. Zahid said, contradicting the official North Korean position, which insists the man, killed Feb. 13 in a crowded airport terminal, was named Kim Chol.

Mr. Kim was assaulted by two women who approached him and smeared his face with a liquid that autopsy tests showed was VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon. He was carrying a passport with the name Kim Chol.

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The man’s death has caused a widening diplomatic standoff between Malaysia and North Korea, which has rejected accusations of responsibility for the killing, calling it a sinister plot hatched by the country’s enemies.

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Kim Jong-nam, who was killed Feb. 13. Credit Toshifumi Kitamura/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Zahid did not indicate when and how Malaysian officials had obtained the DNA. Mr. Kim was believed to have two sons and a daughter, but their whereabouts is unknown.

Last week, a man calling himself Kim Han-sol and claiming to be Mr. Kim’s son released a YouTube video in which he said he and his family had gone into hiding.

For weeks Malaysia has said it determined Mr. Kim’s identity using methods other than DNA testing, but has not revealed what they were. A report in The New Straits Times, citing unidentified Malaysian officials, said investigators had used the pattern of moles on the man’s face and a distinctive tattoo to confirm his identity.

Malaysian officials said that Mr. Kim’s body had been embalmed and that his family would be given several weeks to claim it. In February, North Korea sent a former United Nations ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, to claim the body, but the authorities would not release it, saying at the time they needed DNA to confirm the victim’s identity.

Relations between Malaysia and North Korea have deteriorated since the assassination. Each has expelled the other’s ambassador and barred each other’s nationals from leaving.

The victim’s assailants, arrested and charged with murder, have claimed they were unwitting participants who believed they had been on a hidden-camera prank television show. The police are looking for at least seven suspected North Korean accomplices, including a diplomat believed to be hiding in the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia.

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