North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un engineered the assassination of his half-brother to be so ‘gruesome’ that it would ‘horrify the rest of the world’ and intimidate his adversaries, it was claimed in a new report on Monday.
On February 13, Kim Jong-nam was killed by two women who smeared him with what turned out to be VX nerve agent in Kuala Lampur International Airport in Malaysia.
He was 45 years old.
South Korean intelligence analysts now say that the assassination was meticulously orchestrated by the North Korean government over a period of a five years and was ‘part of [Kim’s] master plan,’ according to GQ Magazine.
‘From the moment Jong-nam left Macau, the North Koreans tailed him,’ Nam Sung-wook, a Korea University professor investigating the assassination, told GQ.
North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un (left) engineered the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam (right), to be so ‘gruesome’ that it would ‘horrify the rest of the world’ and intimidate his adversaries, it was claimed in a new report on Monday
On February 13, Kim Jong-nam was killed by two women who smeared him with what turned out to be VX nerve agent in Kuala Lampur International Airport in Malaysia. He was 45 years old
‘They had a group on his airplane. As soon as he arrived at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, another group followed him. They kept that surveillance up while he slept. Even as Jong Nam entered the terminal, he was shadowed.’
Initially, it was thought that the assassination was a display of sloppiness by the North Koreans.
Analysts noted that the two women who smeared the poison on Kim Jong-nam were clearly visible on surveillance footage.
They also neglected to cover their faces in the moments leading up to the assassination and afterward.
On October 2, Malaysia will begin the trial of the two women accused of the dramatic killing – Doan Thi Huong, 28, from Vietnam (left), and Siti Aisyah, 25, of Indonesia
Initially, it was thought that the assassination was a display of sloppiness by the North Koreans. Analysts noted that the two women who smeared the poison on Kim Jong-nam were clearly visible on surveillance footage
Nam, a former member of South Korea’s spy service, says that contrary to those sentiments, Pyongyang wanted the assassination to be viewed in public.
‘Pyongyang wanted to send a worldwide message by murdering Kim Jong Nam in this gruesome, public way,’ Nam said.
‘Pyongyang wanted to horrify the rest of the world by releasing a chemical weapon at an airport.
‘Jong-un wants to reign a long time and negotiate as a superpower.
‘The only way to do that is to keep the world in fear of his weapons. He has a grand design, and this is part of it.’
On October 2, Malaysia will begin the trial of the two women accused of the dramatic killing.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, from Vietnam, appeared at the Shah Alam High Court on the outskirts of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on July 27.
Both women were handcuffed and wearing bullet-proof vests over Malay traditional costume, consisting of a floor-length skirt and a blouse.
But a former intelligence official with South Korea’s spy agency said that Kim wanted the murder to be public so as to strike fear into the hearts of his adversaries. Kuala Lampur International Airport is seen above after the attack
Both cases would be tried jointly, with pleas taken at the first hearing, he added.
If convicted, the women could face the death penalty.
Doan smiled during the hearing, but Siti Aisyah was in tears afterwards, with her lawyers seen trying to calm her.
Kim Jong-nam was the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. His half-brother, Kim Jong-un, became North Korean leader when their father died in 2011.
US and South Korean officials say the North Korean regime was behind the murder of Kim, who lived in exile in Macau and had criticized his family’s dynastic rule of North Korea.
North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was Kim Jong-un’s half brother, suggesting instead he died of a heart attack.
Aisyah and Huong have told diplomats from their countries that they believed they were participating in a reality television show prank when they assaulted Kim Jong-nam.