Woman arrested in connection with suspicious poisoning death
Half-brother of leader Kim Jong Un died in Malaysian airport
BEIJING — Questions mounted Wednesday about the mysterious death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother at a Malaysian airport, as police revealed that they had detained one woman, a Vietnamese passport holder, in connection with the case.
Kim Jong Nam was waiting in the departure area of the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday morning when two women approached him from behind. One of the women covered his face with a cloth, according to Malaysian police. He complained to airport staff that he felt dizzy, then died en route to a hospital.
The 46-year-old Kim was once considered a potential successor to his father, Kim Jong Il, and South Korean officials quickly accused Pyongyang of ordering his assassination. Yet details about the killing’s circumstances and motivations remain hazy.
Security video from the airport, carried widely by Malaysian news websites, showed a woman believed to be the suspect waiting for a taxi at the airport. She wore pink tights and a white sweater, the letters “LOL” emblazoned across its front.
“Suspect was positively identified from the CCTV footage at the airport and was alone at the time of arrest,” said a statement by Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim, Malaysia’s deputy inspector general of police.
Another Malaysian police official, Fadzil Ahmat, told the Malaysian media outlet Bernama that a woman had “covered (Kim’s) face with a cloth laced with a liquid,” and that Kim’s eyes “suffered burns as a result of the liquid.”
Earlier reports had said the woman used a poison needle, but that is apparently no longer believed to be true.
South Korean intelligence officials were quick to point a finger at Pyongyang, which has a long history of using assassination to rid itself of those deemed to threaten the regime.
The assassination was a “standing order” dating back to 2012, Lee Cheolwoo, chairman of the intelligence committee in South Korea’s parliament, told reporters on Wednesday.
“We should take this as an action that reflects Jong Un’s paranoia,” Lee added, according to Bloomberg. “Normal citizens in the North aren’t aware of Jong Nam’s existence, and it is only elite there who knows about him. The elite should have been shocked.”
Kim Jong Nam was traveling alone on Monday, preparing to return to the Chinese region Macau, where he had been living incognito for more than a decade. He was carrying a passport bearing the name Kim Chol.