Brother of North Korean leader dies

The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jongun has been killed in Malaysia, a South Korean government source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Kim Jong-nam was known to spend a significant amount of his time outside the country and had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated state.

He was believed to be in his mid-40s.

Police in Malaysia said an unidentified North Korean man had died en route to hospital from Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday. Sepang district police chief Abdul Aziz Ali said the dead man’s identity had not been verified.

A Putrajaya hospital employee said a deceased Korean at the facility had been born in 1970 and was surnamed Kim.

South Korea’s TV Chosun, a cable television network, said Kim was poisoned at Kuala Lumpur airport by two women believed to be North Korean operatives, who were at large, citing multiple South Korean government sources.

The South Korean government source who spoke to Reuters did not immediately provide further details.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said it could not confirm the reports and the country’s intelligence agency could not be reached for comment.

Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-un were sons of former leader Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011, but had different mothers.

Kim Jong-nam was believed to be close to his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was North Korea’s second-most powerful man before being executed on Kim Jong-un’s orders in 2013.

Over the years, he said several times that he had no interest in leading his country.

“Personally, I am against third-generation succession,” he told Japan’s Asahi TV in 2010, before his younger brother had succeeded their father.

“I hope my younger brother will do his best for the sake of North Koreans’ prosperous lives.”