The murder of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s brother represents a “whole new type” of terrorism, a former North Korean spy revealed Monday.
Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-un’s estranged half-brother, was poisoned in Malaysia two weeks ago, reportedly with a VX nerve agent, a chemical substance so deadly it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
Kim Dong-sik, a North Korean agent who was captured in the 1990s and now works as a researcher of Institute for National Security Strategy, an affiliate of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, explained that the high-profile hit is “different from previous” assassinations, reports the Korea Herald.
The Kim Jong-nam case “is the first of its kind,” Kim said during a National Assembly seminar.
Two female suspects murdered Kim Jong-nam in Kuala Lumpur International Airport by wiping the lethal toxin on his face. Afterwards, they rushed off to the restroom to wash their hands.
The two women, one from Indonesia and the other from Vietnam, have repeatedly claimed they thought they were taking part in a practical joke. Police, however, claim they knew what they were doing and had been trained.
“I think the suspects rehearsed the killing dozens of time … It was conducted so naturally,” Kim explained.
North Korea has a long history of terror attacks and assassinations involving poison needles, bombs, and other tactics, but the incident in Malaysia is outside the norm.
Although the murder investigation is still ongoing, South Korea asserts that Pyongyang murdered Kim Jong-nam. Seoul’s spy agency, the NIS, says that four of the eight North Korean suspects under investigation work for North Korea’s Ministry of State Security, while two others are employed by the foreign ministry.
“In light of the composition of personnel, the NIS judged that it was a systematically conducted terror by Kim Jong-un,” revealed Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the Democratic Party of Korea.
“It was a case of terror directly led by the state security and foreign ministries, a state-led terror,” added Rep. Lee Cheol-woo of the Liberty Korea Party.
The murder, which reportedly involved VX, has raised concerns about North Korea’s chemical weapons capabilities.
“At maximum capacity, North Korea is estimated to be capable of producing up to 12,000 tons of [chemical weapons]. Nerve agents such as Sarin and VX are thought be to be the focus of North Korean production,” reports the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
South Korean military officials introduced Monday that North Korea is believed to have operational chemical and biological weapons units at the regimental level.
Malaysian police have yet to officially accuse North Korea of carrying out the attack on Kim Jong-nam, but the evidence is stacked against it.
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