Kim Jong Un’s half-brother poisoned in Malaysia
KIM JONG NAM KILLED WITH LACED CLOTH AT KUALA LUMPUR AIRPORT, POLICE SAY
The target: the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The setting: an airport in Malaysia. And a possible suspect: A woman killer carrying a cloth treated with lethal liquid.
It adds up to a case that seems ripped straight from the pages of spy novel.
Even by the standards of sensational news from North Korea, the details that emerged Tuesday were astounding.
Malaysian police confirmed that Kim Jong Nam — who was thought to be 45 and living outside North Korea for more than a decade — had been killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport early Monday while waiting for a flight to Macau, a centre of gambling and nightlife that was among his haunts.
“A woman came from behind and covered his face with a cloth laced with a liquid,” police chief Fadzil Ahmat told Bernama, the Malaysian state news agency.
The man was seen struggling for help and sought assistance from airport staff, he said. He was sent to hospital in an ambulance, but died on the way, Fadzil said.
His statement came after South Korean news outlets reported an even more outlandish version of events: that Kim Jong Nam was pricked with poisoned needles by two female agents who then escaped by taxi.
A passport found on his body identified him as “Kim Chol,” according to Malaysian police. Kim Jong Nam is known to have used forged passports to travel abroad in the past.
North Korea, with its secretive and idiosyncratic leadership, is often the subject of dramatic tales that turn out to be exaggerated or flat-out wrong.
But the Malaysian police chief’s confirmation suggests at least part of this story is true. What is likely to take much longer to determine is whether the plot was orchestrated directly by Kim Jong Un, who recently celebrated five years at the helm of North Korea and is now locked in a showdown with the international community over his nuclear ambitions.
Regardless, it underscores the transience of power North Korea.
Just three years ago, Kim Jong Un had his uncle — and Kim Jong Nam mentor — executed on suspicion of building an alternate power base. Meanwhile, a slew of high-profile defections have raised questions about the stability of the regime.
“Kim Jong Nam was involved in some funny business,” said Michael Madden, editor of North Korea Leadership Watch, a specialist website devoted to the ruling Kim family. He was rumoured to have worked in computing in North Korea — now notorious for cyberattacks — and money laundering through Southeast Asia.
Analysts had long considered Kim Jong Nam, as the oldest son of second-generation leader Kim Jong Il, to be the natural heir to the family dynasty.
But this assumption was thrown into doubt in 2001 when Kim Jong Nam was caught at Narita airport in Tokyo, trying to enter Japan with his wife and son on fake Dominican Republic passports. Kim Jong NAM’s bore the name Pang Xiong — “fat bear” in Mandarin Chinese. He told the authorities they wanted to go to Tokyo Disneyland.
In 2010, with Kim Jong Il’s health steadily worsening, Kim Jong Un was officially declared heir apparent.
Kim Jong Nam was born 1971, the son of leader Kim Jong Il and his consort, an actress named Song Hye Rim. But he grew up largely in secret, the result of founding president Kim Il Sung’s disapproval of his son’s relationship with Song.
He left North Korea to live with his grandmother in Moscow in 1979, according to North Korea Leadership Watch. He spent his childhood at international schools in Russia and Switzerland, before returning to North Korea in 1988, the site said.
But the embarrassing incident in Japan was a tipping point, and Kim Jong Nam appears to have never lived in North Korea again. He reportedly lived for a period in Macau, a Chinese region. But in recent years he seems to have had homes — and families — in Beijing and Singapore as well.
He had occasionally been sighted in sushi restaurants in Singapore and swanky hotel bars in Beijing, but had otherwise kept an extremely low profile.
Kim Jong Nam did, however, return to North Korea at least one time after his younger half-brother assumed the leadership — for their father’s funeral at the end of 2011.
Analysts have suspected that China was keeping Kim Jong Nam in reserve as a potential replacement for Kim Jong Un, who has had strained relations with the Chinese leadership — and a way to keep North Korea stable but make it friendlier to Beijing.
If it is confirmed that Kim Jong Nam was assassinated at the behest of Kim Jong Un, it will not have been the first attempt on his life.
North Korean spies allegedly attempted to kill him in Macau in 2011. A bloody shootout with his bodyguards reportedly ensued, but he managed to escape alive.