The Slatest

Chemical Weapon Nerve Agent Was Used to Kill Kim Jong-un’s Half Brother in Airport Attack

This combo shows a file photo (L) taken on May 4, 2001 of a man believed to be Kim Jong-Nam, son of the late-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and a file photo (R) of his half-brother, current North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA,ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images

The strange story of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother took a turn for the even more surreal with Malaysian police confirming on Friday (local time) that a substance classified as a chemical weapon was used in the murder of the leader’s sibling at the Kuala Lumpur airport earlier this month. Traces of VX nerve agent were found on the skin of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged family member of the country’s ruling family, after two women approached Jong-nam in the terminal and appeared to smear a substance on his face. Jong-nam immediately sought medical help, but suffered seizures shortly after the altercation and reportedly died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

VX is odorless and tasteless, as well as one of the most potent nerve agents, according to the CDC. The chemical discovery “will add to the increasing evidence suggesting that Kim Jong-un’s regime in North Korea was behind the brazen and public attack… an apparent move by the young North Korean leader to get rid of potential rival, the Washington Post reports. Here’s more from the Post:

South Korean authorities have accused Kim Jong Un, who came to power in North Korea in 2011, of putting out a “standing order” to assassinate his older half brother. This would fit with Kim Jong Un’s track record of getting rid of potential contenders for the leadership of North Korea. He had his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, executed at the end of 2013 for apparently amassing his own power base. Jang was a mentor to Kim Jong Nam, who had previously been considered a possible leader in the three-generation communist dynasty. North Korea had strongly objected to Malaysia conducting an autopsy on the man’s body, saying that he carried a diplomatic passport and therefore was not subject to local laws… There were also reports that of an attempted break-in at the hospital morgue where Kim Jong Nam’s body is being held.

Pyongyang has been sharply critical of the handling of the murder, but Malaysia, which has had friendly relations with North Korea, has proceeded with its investigation, naming eight suspects in the killing. Four of the suspects are at-large in Malaysia while the “other four left Malaysia on the day of the attack, taking a circuitous route—via Dubai and Vladivostok, Russia—to get back to Pyongyang without going through China,” according to the Post. “The Chinese government had been protecting Kim Jong Nam and was widely thought to consider him a potential replacement for Kim Jong Un if he became intolerably hostile to Beijing.”