Kim Jong-un's half brother 'was killed with a weapon of mass destruction

                        Pictures show Kim Jong-Nam slumped in a chair having been poisoned

The estranged half brother of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un was assassinated with a deadly nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police revealed today.
Kim Jong Nam, 45, whose sibling denies plotting his murder, had traces of the banned chemical weapon VX, which is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations, on his face and his eyes.   

The revelation raised serious questions about public safety in a building that authorities went 11 days without decontaminating.

If VX was used, it could have contaminated not only the airport but anywhere else Jong Nam had been, including medical facilities and the ambulance he was transported in. The nerve agent, which has the consistency of motor oil, can take days or even weeks to evaporate.

Security experts say it would be easy to smuggle a small amount of VX into Malaysia in a diplomatic pouch, which are not subject to regular customs checks.

Police said one of two women suspected of the killing was vomiting profusely afterwards and experts says that his murderers were probably wearing thin gloves and washed their hands afterwards to avoid killing themselves. 

VX and Sarin was used by a Japanese religious cult who killed a dozen commuters on Tokyo's underground rail network in 1995. Saddam Hussein was accused of using it on Kurds in the 1980s and Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria had stockpiled huge amounts before it was taken away in 2014. 

CCTV footage of Jong-Nam's final minutes shows one female assassin wiping a fast-acting poison on his face from behind.

Other shots show him stumbling, wiping his face, and seeking help from people while gesturing to his eyes before being escorted to a clinic. He later slumped in a chair after he suffered a seizure and died on February 13. 

Traces of VX, considered one of the five most deadly chemical weapons of war, were detected on swabs of the dead man's face and eyes.

Matthew Meselson, a professor of biochemistry at Harvard, told the Washington Post that VX is quite easy to produce.

The board member of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation said: #A good organic chemist could synthesize VX relatively easily. You could get the ingredients and make it in a couple of days, and if you make it pure, it's quite stable'.

Police have not said how the women were able to apply the nerve agent to his face and also avoid becoming ill themselves. 

Detectives said earlier that the two attackers rubbed a liquid on Kim Jong Nam's face before walking away and quickly washing their hands. He sought help from airport staff but died before he reached the hospital.

VX nerve agent, or S-2 Diisoprophylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate, is chemical weapon classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. 

The seeming contradiction of a poison that could kill him quickly but not sicken the attackers has stumped outside experts. 

Bruce Goldberger, a leading toxicologist who heads the forensic medicine division at the University of Florida, said some protective measures must have been in place if the women handled the substance without gloves.

'It's also possible that the toxin was encapsulated, then activated when applied to the skin,' he said before the latest police statement. 'As additional information is provided to the media by the police, it seems more likely that a new or modified chemical or biological agent was utilized in the attack.' 

Malaysia's police chief said last night that investigators want to question a North Korean embassy official about Kim Jong Nam's death, saying he should cooperate if he has nothing to hide despite having diplomatic immunity.

 

Source:Daily Mail