Assassination of Kim Jong-nam

Assassination of Kim Jong-nam
KLIA2 main lobby; pictured in September 2016, the site of Kim Jong-nam's assassination
LocationKuala Lumpur International Airport 2, Malaysia
Coordinates2°44′35″N 101°41′10″E / 2.74306°N 101.68611°E / 2.74306; 101.68611
Date13 February 2017 (2017-02-13)
TargetKim Jong-nam
WeaponsVX nerve agent
ConvictionsOne convicted of "voluntarily causing injuries by dangerous weapons or means"

On 13 February 2017, Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of the dictator of North Korea Kim Jong Un, was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. He had been living abroad since his exile from North Korea in 2003.

Following his visit to the resort island Langkawi, Kim Jong-nam arrived at terminal 2 sometime before 9:00 a.m. to take a 10:50 a.m. AirAsia flight to Macau. At approximately 9:00 a.m., two women assassinated Kim Jong-nam with the VX nerve agent. He died about 15 to 20 minutes later while being transported to the hospital.

The women were identified as Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Đoàn Thị Hương from Vietnam. Both were charged with the murder of Kim Jong-nam. The murder charges were eventually dropped, although Hương pled guilty to a lesser charge of "voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means" and received a sentence of three years and four months. She was released from prison on 3 May 2019.

It is widely believed that Kim Jong-nam was murdered on the orders of Kim Jong Un.[1][2][3] Four North Korean suspects, later confirmed as spies, left the airport shortly after the assassination and reached Pyongyang without being arrested. Other North Koreans were arrested but were released without charge.

  1. ^ Pak, Jung H. (February 2018). "The education of Kim Jong-un". Brookings Institution. Kim ordered the deadly attack using the outlawed nerve agent VX—one of the most toxic chemical warfare agents. against Jong-Nam, his half-brother and erstwhile competitor for the position of the supreme leader of North Korea.
  2. ^ Patricia Bauer, Kim Jong-Nam, Encyclopædia Britannica (last updated on 6 May 2018): "analysts believed that the murder was likely to have been ordered by Kim Jong-Un."
  3. ^ Jackson, Van (2018). On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 98–99. doi:10.1017/9781108562225.006. ISBN 9781108562225. S2CID 239502111.