Malaysia: Poisoning of Kim caused paralysis, quick death

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s health minister said Sunday that the dose of nerve agent given to North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un’s exiled half brother was so high that it killed him within 20 minutes and caused “very serious paralysis.”

Kim Jong Namdied Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur’s airport in what Malaysian police say was a wellplanned hit by two women who wiped a liquid on Kim’s face. Police revealed Friday that the banned chemical we a po nV X nerve agent was used to kill Kim, raising the stakes in the case.

Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said the dose of VX given to Kim was so high that he showed symptoms within minutes. Kim fainted at the airport clinic and died in the ambulance while en route to a hospital, he said.

Malaysia hasn’t directly accused the North Korean government of being behind the attack, but officials have said four North Korean men provided two women with poison to carry it out. The four men fled Malaysia on the same day as the killing, while the women — one from Indonesia and the other Vietnamese— were arrested.

Experts say the nerve agent used to kill Kim was likely produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory and is banned under an international treaty. But North Korea never signed the treaty, and has spent decades developing a complex chemical weapons program.

VX is a nerve agent that stops muscles from being able to switch off, meaning they work too hard, tire out, and shut down. This stops the major organs, including the lungs, from being able towork, leading to death by muscle paralysis.

Early Sunday, officers in protective gear swept the terminal where Kim was attacked and said they found no traces of VX.