North Korean state media on Thursday blasted Malaysia for an "illegal and immoral" autopsy on the body of a man believed to be the half-brother of the isolated state's leader.

"Malaysia is obliged to hand his body to the DPRK (North Korea) side as it made an autopsy and forensic examination of it in an illegal and immoral manner", the North's Korean Jurists Commitee said in comments carried by KCNA.