Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was assassinated by two unidentified female agents presumably from North Korea at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Hyo-jin
Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was killed in Malaysia, according to Malaysian police on Tuesday.
Kim died while on his way to a hospital from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Monday, after two unidentified women presumably from North Korea assassinated him with poisoned needles, they said.
The two suspects fled in a taxi after the attack.
The Malaysian police suspect that North Korea was behind the assassination.
This marks the most high-profile death since Kim Jong-un took power in 2011. His uncle Jang Song-thaek was executed on his orders in December 2013.
South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not confirm anything regarding the incident.
However, observers speculate that Kim Jong-un may have ordered the death of his half brother to further solidify his grip on power.
“It has been over five years since Kim Jong-un took power. He may have felt pressured to consolidate his regime by getting rid of him” said An Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, said, “The assassination of Kim Jong-nam could not have been conducted without Kim Jong-un's approval.”
He said that the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea's intelligence agency, is suspected of being directly involved in the murder.
“The bureau has kept a watch on Kim Jong-nam, and it is the agency in charge of assassinating key North Korean figures,” Cheong noted.
Kim Jong-nam is the eldest son of the late-North Korea leader Kim Jong-il, and has been in de facto exile abroad for decades.
He had reportedly been under threat by his younger brother for a long time as the North Korean leader viewed him as a rival to securing power. Jong-nam was believed to be under China's protection, and had emerged as a possible successor to Kim Jong-il in the late 1990s.
But Jong-nam's position in the regime was soon undermined after his aunt Sung Hye-rang migrated to the U.S. in 1996, and when he was expelled to China after he tried to enter Japan illegally with a fake passport.
Jong-nam lived mostly in the Chinese territory of Macau where he was said to have managed one of his father's slush funds and North Korea's arms dealings under the direction of Kim Jong-il.