Kim’s half-brother was CIA mole

KIM Jong-nam, the halfbrother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un killed in Malaysia in 2017, was an informant for the CIA, The Wall Street Journal says.

Citing an unnamed “person knowledgeable about the matter”, the paper said on Monday many details of Kim Jongnam’s relationship with the CIA remain unclear. The US Central Intelligence Agency has declined to comment.

The Journal quoted the person as saying there was “a nexus” between the CIA and Kim Jong-nam.

“Several former US officials said the half-brother, who had lived outside of North Korea for many years and had no known powerbase in Pyongyang, was unlikely to be able to provide details of the secretive country’s inner workings,” it said.

His role as a CIA informant is mentioned in a new book about North Korea’s leader, The Great Successor, by Anna Fifield.

Ms Fifield says Kim Jongnam usually met his handlers in Singapore and Malaysia. The book says security camera footage from his last trip to Malaysia showed him in a hotel elevator with a man who was reported to be a US agent.