Malaysia assesses DPRK ties in wake of Kim Jong-nam killing

World Today

Kuala Lumpur is assessing ties with Pyongyang following the death of Kim Jong-un’s estranged half-brother. Kim Jong-nam’s body tested positive for the VX nerve agent, a dangerous and banned chemical weapon.

CGTN’s Rian Maelzer reports.
Follow Rian Maelzer on Twitter @rdamael

Malaysian police are trying to learn how a deadly nerve agent found smeared on the face of Kim Jong-nam was brought into Malaysia.

Preliminary chemical analysis of samples from the eyes and face of the body tested positive for the VX nerve agent, which the U.N. categorizes as a chemical weapon.

VX is deadly in tiny quantities when inhaled or ingested, or even through the skin, suggesting the Vietnamese and Indonesian women now in custody for the carrying out the attack put themselves and possibly others in the airport at considerable risk.

The half-brother of DPRK leader Kim Jong-un died on February 13 shortly after having being approached by two women at Kuala Lumpur airport.

The DPRK is one of only three countries not to have signed the United Nations convention that bans the production and stockpiling of VX.

Police have named four DPRK citizens as key suspects in the killing. They left the country right after the attack.


Raymond Zilinskas discusses the VX nerve agent

To discuss the chemical weapon that killed Kim Jon-nam, the VX nerve agent, CGTN’s Mike Walter spoke to Raymond Zilinskas, former Department of Justice and a chemical weapons expert based in California.