Ep. 065 | The Assassination of Kim Jong-nam
On February 13, 2017, Kim Jong-nam—the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un—was assassinated in a crowded terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. As he waited for a flight to Macau, two women approached him from behind and smeared a toxic nerve agent, VX, across his face in a bold and public attack. Kim Jong-nam stumbled to an airport clinic, where he collapsed and died within 20 minutes. The two women, Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Đoàn Thị Hương of Vietnam, claimed they were duped into thinking they were participating in a prank show. Investigators and intelligence agencies, however, pointed to a carefully orchestrated hit by the North Korean regime, motivated by Kim Jong-un's desire to eliminate a potential rival to his power. The brazen nature of the assassination and use of a banned chemical weapon shocked the international community and further isolated North Korea diplomatically.
SOURCES:
ABC News. (2017, March 2). Timeline of investigation into Kim Jong Nam’s apparent assassination. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-investigation-kim-jong-nams-apparent-assassination/story?id=45855541
Agence France-Presse. (2017, March 31). Kim Jong-nam’s body arrives back in North Korea. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/malaysia-to-release-body-of-kim-jong-nam-in-deal-with-north-korea
Associated Press. (2018, March 14). Vietnamese recruited 2 months before Kim Jong Nam’s murder. AP News. https://apnews.com/general-news-b27037d3a118462e9620f94f94016be3
Campbell, C. (2017, March 2). The mysterious death and life of Kim Jong Nam. Time. https://time.com/4688208/kim-jong-nam-north-korea-kuala-lumpur/
Holmes, O. (2017a, February 17). Suspect in North Korea killing “thought she was taking part in TV prank”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/17/suspect-north-korea-killing-thought-she-was-taking-part-in-tv-prank-indonesia-siti-aisyah-police-kim-jong-nam
Holmes, O. (2017b, March 7). Kim Jong-nam death: North Korea and Malaysia in tit-for-tat travel bans. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/07/north-korea-bans-malaysians-leaving-country-kim-jong-nam-crisis
Holmes, O. (2017c, March 8). Kim Jong-nam death: Man claiming to be son appears in video. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/kim-jong-nam-death-man-claiming-to-be-son-appears-video-kim-han-sol
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Leung, H. (2019, May 3). The Vietnamese woman in Kim Jong Nam’s murder case has been freed from jail. Time. https://time.com/5582569/doan-thi-huong-freed-kim-jong-nam/
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