S. Korea: Kim Jong Nam killing organized by N. Korea
Intelligence officials say secret police involved in death.
OfficialsfromNorthKorea’ssecret SEOUL,SOUTHKOREA— police and Foreign Ministry were involved in the killing of the estranged half brother of the country’s leader, South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers on Monday.
Ever since Kim Jong Nam, theeldestbrotheroftheNorth Korean leader, Kim JungUn, was first reported assassinated, the SouthKorean government has held the North responsible. OnMonday, the National Intelligence Service in Seoul provided more details of what it described as state-sponsored terrorism, saying that four of the eight North Koreans identified as suspects by Malaysian authorities were agents fromNorth Korea’s Ministry of State Security, the country’s secret police.
Speaking on Monday in a closed-door parliamentary hearing, Lee Byung-ho, director of the National Intelligence Service, said that two other suspectsworkedfor the NorthKorean Ministry ofForeign Affairs. The remaining two were affiliated with Air Koryo, the North’s state-run airline company, and Singwang Economics and Trading General Corp., Lee said, according to two lawmakers who attended the briefing.
Malaysian authorities have said that Kim Jong Nam was killed by an extremely toxic nerve agent known as VX. TheysaidthattheNorthKoreans had hired and trained twowomen, one fromIndonesia, the other from Vietnam, to attack Kim JongNam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The women smeared his face with the chemicalwhile hewaswaiting to check in for a flight to Macau, they said.
The two women are now in police custody in Kuala Lumpur.
Lee, the South Korean intelligence chief, wasquoted by the lawmakers as saying that the eight NorthKoreans, working as two four-member teams, converged in Kuala Lumpur to carry out the Feb. 13 assassination.
He said that Ri Jae-nam, a state security agent, and Ri Ji-hyon, a Foreign Ministry official, had brought Doan ThiHuong, a 28-year-oldVietnamese woman, into the assassination plot, while Siti Aisyah, a 25-year-old Indonesianwoman, was hired by O Jong-gil, a state security agent, andbyHongSong-hac, a Foreign Ministry official.
The four North Koreans who made up the assassination team left Malaysia the same day Kim Jong Nam was killed and are believed to be back in their country, Lee was quoted as saying. Malaysian police have confirmed their departure.