Nerve agent killed Kim
Weapon of mass destruction
VX NERVE agent, a chemical the UN classifies as a weapon of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged halfbrother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Malaysian police said yesterday they were investigating whether the VX – which is believed to be the most toxic known nerve agent and is banned globally except for research – was brought into the country or made there.
“If the amount of the chemical brought in was small, it would be difficult for us to detect,” police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.
Kim Jong Nam died on February 13, shortly after being accosted at the airport in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, by two women who wiped a chemical on his face as he prepared to board a flight to the Chinese territory of Macau.
South Korean and US officials have said they believe North Korean agents assassinated Kim Jong Nam. He had been living with his family in Macau under Beijing’s protection and had spoken out against the North Korean regime.
The two women suspects – one Vietnamese and the other Indonesian – are in police detention, along with a North Korean man. Seven other North Koreans are wanted in connection with the case, including a diplomat at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia’s chemical weapons analysis unit found traces of VX, or S-2 Diisopropylamino ethyl on swabs taken from the eye and face of the victim.
Police have said the two women were paid to carry out the assault. They had rehearsed the attack in shopping malls before carrying it out on Kim.
One of the women had suffered from the effects of the chemical and had been vomiting, Khalid said.
Airport camera footage released on Monday by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV shows the moment they assaulted Kim Jong Nam.
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.
Authorities raided a flat in an upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb on Wednesday in connection with the killing, but no chemicals were found.
VX is tasteless and odourless, and is outlawed under the Chemical Weapons Convention, except for “research, medical or pharmaceutical purposes”. It can be in liquid, cream or aerosol form.
“This is something that is made in a very sophisticated chemicals weapons lab,” said Bruce Bennet, a senior defence researcher at the California-based RAND Corporation.
North Korea is believed to have the world’s third largest stockpile of chemical weapons, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative project. – Reuters