On 13 February 2017, Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was assassinated at 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 approached Kim with separate components of the VX nerve agent on their hands, combining it into the lethal weapon when touching his face. 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 dropped when it was found that they were unknowingly used for the assassination, 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. 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. The assassination triggered a serious diplomatic conflict between Malaysia and North Korea, which ended in the two countries severing diplomatic ties.
Attack
Kim Jong-nam arrived in Malaysia on 6 February 2017, traveling to the resort island of Langkawi on 8 February. On 13 February, at about 9 a.m., he was approached by two women, one of whom was Vietnamese while the other was Indonesian, and ambushed with VX nerve agent near an airport self check-in kiosk at level 3, departure hall in KLIA 2, the low-cost carrier terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting for a 10:50 a.m. AirAsia flight to Macau. VX is a chemical weapon banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. North Korea, which has not ratified the convention, is suspected of holding a stockpile.
Malaysian police said that Kim had alerted an airport receptionist, saying that "someone had grabbed him from behind and splashed a liquid on his face" and a woman "covered his face with a cloth laced with a liquid".
A resuscitation device was strapped to Kim's face, and he was then transported by stretcher through the airport to reach an ambulance. He was treated at the airport in the Menara Medical Clinic by nurse Rabiatul Adawiyah Mohd Sofi and Dr. Nik Mohd Adzrul Ariff Raja Azlan, who later testified that he was sweating, in pain and unresponsive. At the clinic, Kim was given 1 mg of atropine, and also adrenaline. He was given tracheal intubation. He died about 15 to 20 minutes after the attack while being transferred from the airport to the Putrajaya Hospital.
As he was traveling under the pseudonym "Kim Chol", Malaysian officials did not immediately formally confirm that Kim Jong-nam was the man killed. Kim's extensive Facebook use under this pseudonym since at least 2010, and use of commercial email services for communications, may have made it easier for North Korean agents to seek his whereabouts and track his movements. At the time of his death, Kim's backpack contained approximately $100,000 in cash and he was carrying four North Korean passports, all bearing the name Kim Chol.
Perpetrators
On 15 February, Malaysian police arrested 28-year-old Vietnamese woman Đoàn Thị Hương at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in connection with the attack. Hương was identified through CCTV footage. On 16 February, a 25-year-old Indonesian woman named Siti Aisyah (born 11 February 1992)
was arrested and identified as the second female suspect. Aisyah's boyfriend, a 26-year-old Malaysian named Muhammad Farid bin Jalaluddin, was also arrested on 16 February to assist in the investigation.
Hương told the police that she was instructed by four men who were traveling with them to spray Kim with an unidentified liquid while Aisyah held and covered his face with a handkerchief as part of a prank. CCTV footage showed that Hương and Aisyah rushed to separate restrooms after carrying out the attack, and that they headed to the airport taxi stand after leaving the restrooms. Hương was seen leaving the airport by taxi at around 9:30 a.m. Hương claimed that after she returned to look for the others, they had disappeared and thus she decided to head back to the airport.
On 17 February, police arrested a 46-year-old North Korean man named Ri Jong-chol. He was described as an IT worker for Tombo Enterprise, living in Malaysia.
International reactions
South Korea
Kim Myung-yeon, a spokesperson for South Korea's Liberty Korea Party, described the killing as a "naked example of Kim Jong-un's reign of terror." The South Korean government drew a parallel with the execution of Kim Jong-un's own uncle and others. The acting President of South Korea, Hwang Kyo-ahn, said that if the murder was confirmed to be masterminded by North Korea, that would clearly depict the brutality and inhumanity of the regime.
United States
North Korea was relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States on 20 November 2017, with the assassination cited as one of the reasons.
In March 2018, the United States Department of State imposed additional sanctions on North Korea, having asserted that North Korea used VX nerve agent to assassinate Kim Jong-nam.
On 10 June 2019, after the trial, The Wall Street Journal reported that former US officials stated Kim had been a CIA source. A book by Anna Fifield, The Washington Post bureau chief in Beijing, had earlier reported this, stating he had been previously filmed abroad with a US intelligence agent, and had carried a backpack that contained $120,000 in cash.
Apology from North Korean officials to Vietnam
On 12 December 2018, it was reported that North Korean officials had informally apologized to Vietnam for involving a Vietnamese woman in the assassination following Vietnam's demands for an official apology and threats to sever diplomatic ties.
Other reactions
The Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) expressed "grave concern"
over the incident and called for those responsible for the use of chemical weapons to be held accountable.
Autopsy
An autopsy was conducted despite North Korean diplomats objecting to any such procedure on Kim's body. Malaysian officials later commented that the autopsy proceeded as the North Korean diplomats failed to submit a formal protest. A post-mortem on Kim was conducted on 15 February at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary in the presence of several North Korean officials, and concluded the following day with formally confirming the identity of Kim's body. The autopsy was conducted by pathologist Mohamad Shah Mahmood of Kuala Lumpur Hospital, who testified that Kim's lungs, brain, liver and spleen were affected by the poison. A chemical pathologist testified that Kim's urine showed the effects of being exposed to the poison. Low levels of acetylcholinesterase indicated that Kim had been exposed to an insecticide or nerve agent. A forensic consultant testified that Kim's pupil constriction, and the feces in his underwear, suggested he had been poisoned.
On 24 February, Malaysia's police chief Khalid Abu Bakar announced that a post-mortem toxicology report had found traces of the nerve agent VX on Kim's face. According to experts, the use of VX may explain why two assailants were involved, because the assailants "could have wiped two or more precursors" in Kim's face. This is referred to as a binary chemical weapon. This method could ensure that the assailants were not themselves killed by the poison, which can be fatal in very small amounts; additionally, smuggling the chemical components into Malaysia separately could have helped avoid detection. Aisyah reported she vomited in the taxi afterward and has continued to feel unwell.
Two chemical weapons experts noted that the reported effects were not entirely consistent with the potency of VX—Kim was able to walk to the medical station without suffering spasms, paramedics were not affected, the assailants survived and there were no other reports of injury even though the scene of the attack was not cleaned for over a week. VX degrades rapidly in storage and North Korea's supplies are believed to be several years old, which could explain the apparent weakness of the chemical.
On 10 March, police completed the autopsy, confirming that the deceased was Kim Jong-nam based on DNA provided by his son Kim Han-sol, and the body was handed to the Ministry of Health for further action. The Health Ministry said they would then give Kim's family two to three weeks to claim his body, with the body having been embalmed to preserve it during the period. The family, however, declined to take the body and gave the Malaysian authorities permission to manage the remains. Over objections of Kim Han-sol, the body was flown to Pyongyang on 31 March. Kim Jong-nam's blazer, backpack and watch were initially submitted to a police chemistry department for analysis, but subsequently returned to officials from the North Korean embassy.
Diplomatic protest
Following Malaysia's refusal to release the body immediately, North Korea's ambassador Kang Chol accused Malaysia of collaborating with the country's enemies over the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. The ambassador said they would reject the outcome of the post-mortem conducted "on its citizen without permission" and perceived the decision as a "violation of human rights" and thus would lodge a complaint to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ambassador was summoned by the government of Malaysia on 20 February, while the Malaysian ambassador to North Korea was recalled.
The ambassador then responded that they could not trust the investigation conducted by the Malaysian police, noting there had been no evidence of the cause of death even a week after the attack. He also proposed that North Korea and Malaysia open a joint investigation together in order to prevent influence from South Korea which, he said, was trying to malign North Korea as the party responsible for the killing. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak responded to the ambassador that his country would be objective during the investigation, rejecting the request for joint investigation. On 22 February, Malaysian police said there was evidence of an attempted break-in at the mortuary where Kim's body was being held.
The North Korean government rejected all findings, accused the Malaysian police of fabricating evidence in collusion with South Korea and demanded the release of the three people being held in connection with the death.
North Korean–Malaysian dispute
On 28 February, the North Korean government dispatched a high level delegation to Malaysia. North Korea said the claim that VX nerve agent was used to kill one of its citizens was "absurd" and lacked scientific basis, portraying it as an allegation jointly made by the United States and South Korea to tarnish its image, adding that the death was caused by a "heart attack" as Kim Jong-nam had a record of heart disease. The North Koreans stressed that if it was indeed caused by the chemical, it should be proven by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Malaysian police immediately rejected the North Korean claims. In a statement released by the Malaysian Foreign Ministry, the country said it was already co-operating with OPCW.
Malaysia announced that from 6 March they would cancel visa-free entry for North Koreans, citing "security issues". On 4 March, the North Korean ambassador Kang Chol was declared persona non grata and asked to leave within 48 hours with a similar move having been imposed by North Korea towards the Malaysian ambassador. The North Korean authorities also reacted on 7 March by barring all Malaysian citizens in North Korea from leaving. Malaysian authorities imposed reciprocal measures, prohibiting North Korean citizens from leaving Malaysia.
On 30 March, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that all Malaysians in North Korea as well as North Koreans in Malaysia would be allowed to return to their home countries after the receipt of a letter from Kim's family requesting his remains be returned to North Korea.
Attempts to restore diplomatic relations
Following the 2018 North Korea–United States Summit held in Singapore on 12 June 2018, the new Malaysian-led government of Pakatan Harapan under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said:
"the world should not treat North Korea leader Kim Jong-un with scepticism and instead learn from his new attitude towards bringing about peace".
In a joint press conference in Tokyo, Japan, he said: "We hoped for a successful outcome from the historic meeting", adding that "Malaysia will re-open their embassy in North Korea as an end to the diplomatic row over the assassination of Kim Jong-nam". On 13 February 2019, Mahathir said that Malaysia will settle its problem with North Korea soon after the 2019 North Korea–United States Vietnam Summit held in Hanoi, Vietnam on 27–28 February 2019 but after the changing of leadership, no major statement has been issued since.