NK man killed by VX: police

Malaysia authorities investigating source of deadly nerve agent

VX nerve agent, a chemical on a UN list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill a North Korean man who is believed to be the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in last week’s bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

The Korean man died on February 13 after being assaulted by two women who wiped the chemical on his face as he prepared to board a flight to Macao at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Malaysian police were investigating whether the illegal VX – believed to be the most toxic known nerve agent – was brought into the country or made there. Authorities intended to decontaminate the airport, along with other locations that suspects, three of whom were caught last week, had visited.

“We will get the experts from the atomic energy department to go to the

location and sweep it to see if radioactive [material] is still there,” police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters, declining to elaborate.

It was unclear whether VX contains any radioactive elements.

Police are holding the two women – one Vietnamese and the other Indonesian – along with a North Korean man. They are also seeking seven other North Koreans wanted in connection with the case, including a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia’s chemical weapons analysis unit found VX, or S-2D ii sopropyl amino ethyl methyl ph os ph ono th io ate, present on swabs taken from the eye and face of the North Korean murder victim, according to police.

“Other exhibits are under analysis,” Khalid said in a statement citing a preliminary report.

He said the two women who were paid to carry out the assault had washed their hands before fleeing from the airport. But he said one of them had suffered from the effects of the chemical and had been vomiting.

“However, few has been reported to suffer the effects but the victim, which is not in accordance with the extreme toxicity of VX,” a Chinese expert on chemical weapons who asked for anonymity told the Global Times on Friday.

“Since VX cannot be cleansed without special decontaminating agents, it will also poison the killer if she inhaled or contacted the toxic substance with skin. Even medical workers and policemen who had immediate contact with the victim might also suffer from the effects of the chemical when the remaining toxicants volatilize,” the expert said.

Airport camera footage released on Monday by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV shows the moment the man was assaulted. In later clips he is seen asking airport officials for medical help, and rubbing his eyes and stumbling as he entered an airport clinic. Authorities said he complained of dizziness and died on the way to hospital.

Besides, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons stipulates that the conclusion whether the toxicant was used in the murder should not be drawn until more than two labs give the same analysis results, said the anonymous expert.

VX is tasteless and odorless, and is outlawed under the Chemical Weapons Convention, except for “research, medical or pharmaceutical purposes.” “This is not something you make in a kitchen lab. This is something that is made in a very sophisticated chemical weapons lab,” said Bruce Bennet, a senior defense researcher at the RAND Corporation.

After giddiness and nausea, exposure to VX quickly progresses to convulsions and respiratory failure before death, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Absorbed in large doses, it is fatal after 15 minutes, according to the US Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, making it the world’s most toxic known nerve agent.

In 2015, traces of sarin and VX nerve agent were found at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog.

“Once the toxicant that killed Kim is determined to be VX, a string of questions will need to be answered. Which country produced VX? Who brought it and transferred to the murderers?” the anonymous expert said.