Puzzle of Kim brother killing
A MANHUNT was under way in Malaysia last night after the half-brother of Kim Jong-un was killed at an airport, having apparently been attacked with a chemical spray.
Kim Jong-nam, who often spoke out against his brother’s dictatorship in North Korea, said he was in “extreme pain” after being sprayed in the face with an unidentified liquid as he waited to board a flight in Kuala Lumpur, according to police. Unnamed South Korean government officials had earlier stated that two female North Korean agents stabbed Kim Jong-nam with a “poisoned needle”.
Reports claim the attackers then fled the airport by taxi and remain at large.
It is believed that Kim Jong-un, who is 13 years his brother’s junior, had the playboy killed as he feared he might attempt to overthrow him as Supreme Leader. Kim Jong-nam collapsed yesterday morning while waiting to fly back to Macau, where he was in exile.
ONCE the heir apparent to the world’s last communist dynasty, Kim Jongnam suffered a dramatic fall from grace and had already been forced into exile before the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.
After that, he went into hiding to evade his ruling half-brother, Kim Jong-un, who feared that his sibling still posed a threat.
Jong-nam was born in Pyongyang in May 1971, the oldest son of Jong-il who would go on to rule North Korea from 1997 until 2011. He initially tried to keep his son’s existence secret from his own father, Kim Il-sung, who disapproved of his relationship with Jong-nam’s mother, an actress.
Jong-nam attended Kim Il-sung University and served with the Korean People’s Army until, in 1998, he was appointed to a senior position in the Ministry of Public Security. It seemed he was being groomed to take over. Yet, only four months later he was arrested at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport with two women and a four-year-old boy, identified as his son.
Jong-nam was travelling on a forged Dominican Republic passport and used a Chinese alias, Pang Xiong, which means “fat bear” in Mandarin. He was held for three days and, during interrogation, he told immigration officials he had wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Later, in his book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, Bradley Martin said Jong-nam had visited Japan on many previous occasions and was a regular in some of the bathhouses in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara redlight district.
An embarrassed Jong-il then cancelled a planned visit to China and Jong-nam effectively went into exile in Macau, where he was reportedly using a forged Portuguese passport to travel. In brief press interviews, he claimed he had no plans to defect and “no interest” in taking power in North Korea.
The position of heir apparent in Pyongyang was swiftly passed to Jongun but it is likely that he saw Jong-nam as a threat to the legitimacy of his rule from the outset.
Jong-nam will not have endeared himself with comments attributed to him in a book by Japanese journalist Yoji Gomi titled My Father, Kim Jong-il, and Me. In it, he said he expected the Jong-un regime to collapse because he is too young and inexperienced. In another interview, he said he opposed North Korea’s hereditary leadership.
Jong-nam reportedly left Macau in late 2012 after becoming concerned for his safety; a North Korean agent who was arrested in South Korea had admitted during questioning that he was ordered to assassinate Jong-nam in July 2010.
There were also reports of a failed attempt on Jong-nam’s life in the city shortly after the death of his father.
Jong-nam later spent time in Singapore before being spotted in Malaysia in January 2014, weeks after Jong-un had ordered the execution of Jang Song-thaek, his uncle and former mentor, as a counter revolutionary.