Kuala Lumpur – Malaysian police confirmed on Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother Kim Jong Nam has died in what media reports said was an assassination.
The eldest of former dictator Kim Jong Il’s three sons was due to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Macau but the 45-year-old never made the trip.
“We are investigating the cause of death and waiting for an autopsy to be done on his body,” local police chief Dato Abdul Samah told dpa.
He died en route to hospital from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, police told Malaysian media.
Photo released by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Dec. 16, 2012 shows Kim Jong Un congratulated by scientific workers of the second Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite launch project at Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province, DPRK.
South Korean cable TV channel Chosun said he was attacked at the airport by two unidentified women with “poisoned needles.” They then fled in a taxi.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that agents from North Korea’s spy agency had carried out the assassination by taking advantage of a security lapse between his bodyguards and Malaysian airport police.
The case would mark the most high-profile death under the Kim Jong Un regime since the execution of Jang Song Thaek in December 2013, the once-powerful uncle of North Korea’s leader.
The dead brother has mainly spent time in China and South-East Asia in recent years, the reports said.
In 2001, he was arrested at Tokyo airport for allegedly having a fake Chinese passport. Reports said the name on the passport was Pang Xiong, which translates as fat bear. He was trying to reach Disneyland Tokyo.
South Korean media have long talked about a feud between the brothers and have speculated that the North Korean leader might want to get rid of his rival, who had however said he never sought power for himself.
The older Kim said in an interview with Japanese TV broadcaster Asahi in 2010 that he was against “a third generation successor,” just over a year before his father’s death and the rise to power of the younger brother.
Kim Jong Il had succeeded his father Kim Il Sung, the first leader of communist North Korea.
– dpa
