25 February 2017 01:56 am
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s half brother was assassinated with a lethal nerve agent manufactured for chemical warfare and listed by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction, Malaysian police said Friday.
Releasing a preliminary toxicology report on Kim Jong-Nam’s murder at Kuala Lumpur airport, police revealed the poison used by the assassins was the odourless, tasteless and highly toxic VX.
The news brought condemnation from South Korea, which slammed the use of the nerve agent as a “blatant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and other international norms”.
Experts in the South said Friday that North Korea has up to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons stockpiled, including a supply of VX.
Kim died on February 13 after being attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by two women, who are seen on CCTV footage shoving something in his face.
He suffered a seizure and was dead before he reached hospital.
An autopsy revealed traces of VX -- a fast-acting toxin that sparks respiratory collapse and heart failure -- on the dead man’s face and in his eyes.
Tiny amounts of the poison are enough to kill an adult.
“I am outraged that the criminals used such a dangerous chemical in a public area,” said Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar It “could have caused mass injuries or even death to other people”.
One of the two women arrested after the attack fell ill in custody, police said, adding she had been vomiting.
KUALA LUMPUR AFP
Feb24, 2017