SEOUL: North Korean female agents using poisoned needles have assassinated the half-brother of the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un in Malaysia, South Korean media reported on Tuesday. Officials in Seoul and Kuala Lumpur could not confirm the death of Kim Jong-Nam, once seen as heir apparent in the North.

Malaysian police said in a statement late on Tuesday that a North Korean man, identified as Kim Chol, sought medical assistance at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and died on the way to hospital. South Korean media reports meanwhile said Jong-Nam had travelled using a fake passport under the name of Kim Chol.

If confirmed, it would be the highest-profile death under the Jong-Un regime since the execution of the leader’s uncle Jang Song-Thaek in December 2013. Jong-Un has been trying to strengthen his grip on power in the face of growing international pressure over his country’s nuclear and missile programmes. He has reportedly staged a series of executions.

The latest launch of a new intermediate-range missile on Sunday brought UN Security Council condemnation and vows of a strong response from US President Donald Trump.

South Korea’s national news agency Yonhap quoted a source as saying agents of the North’s spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, carried out the assassination on Monday by taking advantage of a security loophole between Jong-Nam’s bodyguards and Malaysian police at the airport. The 45-year-old was killed by two unidentified female agents using poisoned needles at the airport, according to South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun. It said the women hailed a cab and fled immediately afterwards.

Jong-Nam, the eldest son of former leader Kim Jong-Il, was once seen as heir apparent but fell out of favour following an embarrassing botched attempt in 2001 to enter Japan on a forged passport and visit Disneyland. He has since lived in virtual exile, mainly in the Chinese territory of Macau.

Jong-Nam, known as an advocate of reform in the North, once told a Japanese newspaper that he opposed his country’s dynastic power transfers. He was reportedly close to his uncle Song-Thaek, once the North’s unofficial number two and political mentor of the current leader. Jong-Nam was born from his father’s extra-marital relationship with Sung Hae-rim, a South Korean-born actress who died in Moscow.

Past poison attacks

POISON UMBRELLA KILLS BULGARIAN, SEPT 1978: Georgy Markov, a Bulgarian dissident living in exile in London, is stabbed with a ricin poison-tipped umbrella as he is going home from his job with BBC World Service radio. He dies four days later.

HAMAS LEADER SURVIVES COMA, SEPT 1997: Israeli agents working in Jordan administer poison to the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, who is living there. But the agents are captured and in order to obtain their release Israel is forced to provide an antidote. Meshaal survives after falling into a coma.

DIOXIN SCARS UKRAINE’S YUSH­CHENKO, SEPT 2004: Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko, campaigning against Russian-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych for his country’s presidency, is diagnosed with dioxin poisoning which disfigures his face. His supporters accuse the Russian secret service of being behind the incident. Yushchenko goes on to win the election.

ARAFAT POISON CHARGES DISMISSED, NOV 2004: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dies in a French military hospital. French experts are unable say what had killed him, fueling accusations that he was poisoned by Israel. After a murder probe French prosecutors dismiss claims he was poisoned, after Swiss experts said they found high levels of radioactive polonium on his personal effects.

POLONIUM KILLS EX-SPY LITVINENKO, NOV 2006: Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko dies in agony after drinking tea laced with highly radioactive Polonium-210 at a London hotel, in a case which plunged Moscow-London relations into a deep chill.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2017