I can't vouch for the information now being reported by UPI - as they give no or very vague sources. I have been following the story of the assassination of the half-brother of the current head of N. Korea and wondering why he was assassinated - as he has been out of the country a long time. If any of this holds up, this starts to give some motive. I'm also interested to know what poison can be [by various descriptions] briefly held before one's face on a handkerchief, causing him to die within less than 15 minutes....
Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Nam may have played a significant role in the North Korean regime despite his status as an exile, according to a South Korean press report.
North Korean officials may also have been trying to persuade the older half-brother of Kim Jong Un to return to North Korea before his sudden death in Malaysia on Monday.
A source on North Korea told Yonhap news agency on Thursday, local time, the older Kim was in charge of managing the North Korean leader's inheritance money from his base in Macau.
Kim also oversaw a slush fund that belonged to Jang Song Thaek, the North Korean leader's uncle-in-law who was executed in December 2013.
According to Yonhap's source, Kim Jong Nam and his younger half-brother quarreled over the money prior to Kim's death, because the older Kim refused to return portions of the slush fund Kim Jong Un claimed as his own.
In the days leading up to the assassination, North Korea diplomats approached Kim Jong Nam in compliance with direct orders from Kim Jong Un, and urged the older Kim to repatriate to Pyongyang, according to a North Korean official who spoke to Radio Free Asia on the condition of anonymity.
"Kim Jong Un's order was for [Kim Jong Nam] to return home without causing a disturbance," the source said.
North Korean officials may have met with the older Kim on Jan. 20 in Macau, according to the report.
Kim Jong Un was concerned his half-brother would attempt to seek asylum in South Korea or the United States.
The alleged poisoning of Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur airport is not the first time agents have attempted the assassination of Kim Jong Il's oldest son.
Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday, local time, agents tried to kill Kim in Beijing in 2012.
THE murdered half-brother of despot Kim Jong-un uttered the words "very painful, very painful" after he was sprayed with poison by assassins, reports claim.
Kim-Jong-nam staggered around 15m to a service counter for help after he was targeted by a hit squad in a five-second attack at Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia.
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Kim Jong-nam is believed to have been attacked by two women and sprayed with poison before collapsing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday
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Police arrested an Indonesian woman and her boyfriend today over the alleged poison plot
ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES
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One of the women arrested over the assassination of Kim Jong-un's playboy half-brother has reportedly claimed she thought she was "playing a prank"
He had a pained expression on his face as he told the workers "very painful, very painful, I was sprayed with liquid", police sources told China Press.
Jong-nam, 46, then groaned before collapsing and being taken to hospital where he later died, according to reports.
His chilling last words emerged as it was sensationally claimed one of the assassins accused of slaying Jong-nam was a man dressed in drag.
Three people, including Siti Aisyah, 25, from Indonesia, and her Malaysian boyfriend have been arrested over the poison plot.
CCTV suggests a cross-dressing killer may have held Jong-nam from behind before he was sprayed with either ricin or deadly puffer fish toxins.
A few more people have been identified as involved, but all flew out of Malasia immediately after the assassination and are on the loose...apparently back in N. Korea. Also, there is now a VERY HEAVY armed presence around the coroner's building to prevent the illegal and forced removal of the body. Officials are waiting for sophisticated toxicological tests on the poison[s] used....they take quite a while to do properly. However, from the quick action and symptoms it was likely ricin and/or shellfish toxin.
Oh, my....My toxicology teacher would have lowered my grade [I got an A+ in Toxicology] if they knew I didn't also consider VX. It is the most potent nerve agent ever invented and is lethal in amounts that can fit on the head of a pin [smaller, actually]. It is banned Worldwide by treaty and only the US and USSR ever admitted having made it [and said to have destroyed it]. Syria is suspected of having some. A very large sized bottle of it if evenly sprayed over a small nation would kill everyone in about 15-45 minutes...and most of the animals too - certainly all mammals. There is only two known antidotes and the death is a horrible one. It is NOT easy to make and is very difficult to store without danger to those making and storing it. If N. Korea has a lot of it, it is IMHO more dangerous than their having a few nukes. That guy is as crazy as his bad haircut!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)
Quote:Oliver Holmes and agencies
Friday 24 February 2017 04.33 GMT [Guardian]
Malaysian police have said the substance used in the killing of Kim Jong-nam was a "VX nerve agent", a highly toxic liquid used only in chemical warfare.
Malaysia's inspector general, Khalid Abu Bakar, later added that one of the two women suspected of the poisoning also suffered its effects. "She was vomiting," he said without elaborating.
The findings follow a preliminary analysis of swabs taken of the face and eyes of the victim, who is the half-brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. More items are still being analysed.
The substance also known as ethyl N-2-Diisopropylaminoethyl Methylphosphonothiolate is classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.
Kim Jong-nam died on 13 February from a seizure on his way to hospital after complaining that a woman had sprayed chemicals on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport. Leaked CCTV footage show a woman grabbing his face. Malaysian police had said earlier two attackers rubbed a liquid on Kim Jong-nam before walking away and quickly washing their hands.
Asked about the possibility that North Korean agents may have imported the world's most toxic nerve agent and deployed it in an international airport, a source close to the Malaysia government commented: "Not very diplomatic".
Khalid said authorities were determining how VX entered the country and that the terminal where Kim Jong-nam was killed, in a budget airline departure lounge, will be decontaminated. As a weapon, VX does not quickly dissipate and can remain on material or the ground for long periods.
An employee at Malaysia Airports Holdings, the company that manages the airport, told the Guardian it had not closed the terminal or been contacted by police about a decontamination since the attack 11 days ago.
China, which afforded a level of protection to Kim Jong-nam during his stays there and in Macau, has yet to comment on the finding and Chinese academics were reluctant to comment on what is a highly a sensitive political issue. "It is not convenient to make any comment," said Wang Junsheng, a North Korea expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes VX as the most potent of all nerve agents and one that would be lethal on contact with the skin unless it was immediately washed off. Its only known use is in chemical warfare, it says.
The agency says exposure to a large dose of VX may result in convulsions, loss of consciousness, paralysis and fatal respiratory failure. Kim Jong-nam is reported to have complained of pain in his face shortly after the attack. A leaked photo at the medical centre shows him laid back on a chair with his eyes closed.
VX is a clear, colourless liquid with the consistency of engine oil. A fraction of a drop, absorbed through the skin, is enough to fatally disrupt the nervous system,according to the Council on Foreign Relations. It was developed in the 1950s in the UK during research into pesticides but was later found to be too toxic to be used safely.
Saddam Hussein was accused of using VX during the Iran-Iraq War and there are concerns that stockpiles also exist in Syria. Only the US and Russia have said they possess VX or a similar agent.
Analysis North Korea's use of nerve agent in murder sends a deliberate signal to foes
North Korea is thought to have among the world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, and is one of six countries not to have signed or acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), according to the US non-profit organisation the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
South Korea believes the North is able to produce most types of chemical weapons and Pyongyang is thought to be concentrating upon sulphur mustard, chlorine, phosgene, sarin and the V-agents, of which VX is one. Defectors have accused North Korea of testing its chemical agents on people.
Malaysian police said its Centre for Chemical Weapons was still analysing other items related to Kim Jong-nam, who lived most of his life outside his home country.
Raymond Zilinskas, who directs the chemical and biological nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said it seemed unlikely the killers applied VX directly.
"Even if they or her were wearing gloves, the fumes would have killed them," he said. He suggested the assassins may have used a "binary concoction", smearing two non-fatal elements of VX which mix on the victims face to form deadly VX.
He added that as North Korea does not belong to the Chemical Weapons Convention, Malaysia may ask the UN secretary general to investigate the matter.
"Whether North Korea would allow UN inspectors to enter the country is of course a big question. But the matter certainly could be taken up by UN security council and/or general assembly."
Kim Jong-nam's death: what we know so farFour people of different nationalities have been arrested and seven North Koreans are wanted in connection with the attack. Malaysian police have not directly pinpointed North Korea as being behind the death.
The Malaysia Star said police had seized "various chemicals" at an apartment in Kuala Lumpur overnight on Thursday. The report, which could not be independently verified, said a Malaysian man who led police there might be linked to suspects already being held.
On Thursday, North Korea accused Malaysia of having a "sinister purpose" and collaborating with South Korea over the killing. In the first report from state-run KCNA news agency since the attack, the government accused Malaysia of breaking international law by conducting autopsies on a diplomatic passport holder and withholding the body.
"This proves that the Malaysian side is going to politicise the transfer of the body in utter disregard of international law and morality and thus attain a sinister purpose," it said.
According to people who knew him, Kim Jong-nam spent his last few years highly paranoid, hiding from the regime run by his dictator half-brother while struggling with a sense of powerlessness over the fate of his homeland.
The killing has led to a diplomatic face-off between Malaysia and North Korea and refocused attention on Pyongyang, one of the world's most isolated regimes with nuclear capabilities.
Nerve agents cause their toxic effects by preventing the proper operation of an enzyme that acts as the body's "off switch" for glands and muscles. Without that switch, the glands and muscles are constantly being stimulated, and eventually tire and become unable to sustain breathing.