N. Korean agents murdered leader’s halfbrother, US Govt believes
KUALA LUMPUR/SEOUL: The US Government strongly believes North Korean agents murdered the estranged halfbrother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia, US Government sources said yesterday.
American authorities have not yet determined exactly how Kim Jong Nam was killed, according to two sources, who did not provide specific evidence to support the US Government’s view.
A South Korean Government source also had said that Kim Jong Nam had been murdered in Malaysia.
He did not provide further details.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said it could not confirm the reports, and the country’s intelligence agency could not immediately be reached for comment.
In Washington, there was no immediate response to a request for comment from the Trump Administration, which faces a stiff challenge from a defiant North Korea over its nuclear arms programme and the test of a ballistic missile last weekend.
Kim Jong Nam was known to spend a significant amount of his time outside North Korea and had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated state.
If confirmed as an assassination, it would be the latest in a string of killings over the decades, taking place at home and abroad and intended to silence those perceived by North Korea’s leaders as threats to their authority, one US source said on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Malaysian police said the dead man (46) held a passport under the name Kim Chol.
Kim Jong Nam has been caught in the past using forged travel documents.
Malaysian police official Fadzil Ahmat said the cause of Nam’s death was not yet known, and a postmortem would be carried out.
‘‘So far there are no suspects, but we have started investigations and are looking at a few possibilities to get leads,’’ Fadzil told Reuters.
Fadzil said Nam planned to travel to Macau on Monday when he fell ill at the lowcost terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
‘‘The deceased . . . felt like someone grabbed or held his face from behind,’’ Fadzil said. ‘‘He felt dizzy, so he asked for help at the . . . counter of KLIA.’’
He was taken to an airport clinic where he still felt unwell, and it was decided to take him to hospital. He died in the ambulance on the way to Putrajaya Hospital, Fadzil added. The US Government sources said it was possible that Kim
Jong Nam had been poisoned. They said it could not be ruled out that assassins may have used some kind of ‘‘poison pen’’ device.
South Korea’s TV Chosun, a cableTV network, reported that he had been poisoned with a needle by two women believed to be North Korean operatives and fled in a taxi and were at large, citing multiple South Korean government sources.
Reuters could not independently confirm those details.
Malaysia is one of a dwindling number of countries that has close relations with North Korea, which is under tightening global sanctions over its nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place on Sunday.
Malaysians and North Koreans can visit each other’s country without visas.
A phone call to the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur late on Tuesday went straight to an answering machine.
Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Un are both sons of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who died in late 2011, but they had different mothers.
Kim Jong Nam, the elder of the two, did not attend his father’s funeral. His mother was an actress named Song Hye Rim, and Kim Jong Nam said his father kept his parents’ relationship secret.
The portly and easygoing Kim Jong Nam was believed to be close to his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was North Korea’s secondmost powerful man. Thaek was executed on Kim Jong Un’s orders in 2013. In an embarrassing 2001 incident, Kim Jong Nam was caught at an airport in Japan travelling on a forged Dominican Republic passport, saying he had wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
He was known to travel to Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.
Koh Yuhwan, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said Kim Jong Nam had occasionally been the subject of speculation that he could replace his younger halfbrother, the country’s thirdgeneration leader.
‘‘Loyalists may have wanted to get rid of him,’’ he said.
Kim Jong Nam said several times over the years that he had no interest in leading his country.
‘‘Personally, I am against thirdgeneration succession,’’ he told Japan’s TV Asahi in 2010. ‘‘I hope my younger brother will do his best for the sake of North Koreans’ prosperous lives.’’
His cousin, Lee Hanyoung, who defected to South Korea through Switzerland in 1982, was shot and killed by North Korean agents in Seoul in 1997, according to South Korea.
— Reuters