Considering North Korea’s long criminal history it makes you wonder why the Malaysian government had a visa waiver program with North Korea in the first place?:
North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Malaysia has canceled its visa waiver arrangement with North Korea amid a diplomatic spat over the assassination of the half brother of the North’s leader, a news report said Thursday.
The cancellation will take effect on March 6, after which North Koreans entering Malaysia will be required to obtain a visa, Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted the country’s deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, as saying. He cited national security as the reason.
This marks Malaysia’s first tangible action taken against Pyongyang following the assassination of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. [Yonhap]
Here is the other development regarding the Kim Jong-nam murder case:
Malaysia has decided to release and deport Ri Jong-chol, a 47-year-old North Korean suspect, due to a lack of incriminating evidence, AP reported.
Four North Korean suspects are believed to have fled Malaysia on the day of Kim Jong-nam’s death while three others, including Hyon Kwang-song, the second secretary at the North’s embassy in Malaysia, are wanted for questioning. [Yonhap]
I was curious to why Ri Jong-chol did not flee like the other North Korean agents if he was in fact part of the murder plot. Considering Malaysian authorities had no evidence to convict him it appears he was not involved.
As if the murder of Kim Jong-nam could not get any more bizarre, now the VX nerve agent wielding assassin Doan Thi Huong has been identified as an aspiring singer who appeared recently on Vietnam’s version of American Idol:
A woman believed to be Huong appeared on the Vietnamese version of Pop Idol
Doan Thi Huong’s site features pouting party pictures including a snap of her wearing a shirt emblazoned ‘LOL’ similar to the one on the fleeing suspect caught on CCTV.
The photos were released amid claims she once starred on the Vietnamese version of Pop Idol.
I just don’t see how North Korea does not get put back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List after this latest news that they used a weapon of mass destruction to kill someone within a busy airport:
A police officer checks his phone inside the forensic department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Malaysia Friday. Police announced the banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used in the murder of Kim Jong-nam last week at the airport in Kuala Lumpur. [AP/YONHAP]Malaysian police announced Friday that the poison used to kill Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was VX nerve agent, a type of chemical weapon.
“The chemical substance on the exhibits has been identified as VX nerve agent,” Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a press briefing on Friday. The inspector general added that the chemical was detected from swabs of Kim’s eyes and face, citing a preliminary toxicology test by the Malaysian government’s chemistry department.
The odorless and colorless VX nerve agent is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies VX as “the most potent of all nerve agents.”
The Malaysian authorities said they are investigating how the internationally banned chemical weapon made its way into Malaysia. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but something I am wondering is how did the VX kill Kim Jong-nam, but not the two women who had it on their hands when they attacked him? Have the North Koreans developed a new type of VX agent that only kills when it makes contact with the eyes perhaps?
Finally according to the article it is believed that North Korea has 5,000 tons of sarin and VX nerve agents. Seeing how effective this agent was with quickly killing Kim Jong-nam can you imagine what an aerial dispersal of this weapon would do if released in Seoul?
This likely for domestic consumption within North Korea because with all the evidence piled up against North Korea I don’t think anyone outside the country will believe this claim:
Members of Umno Youth, the United Malays National Organization’s youth wing, protest against the killing of Kim Jong-nam outside the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday. North Korea denied Thursday being involved in the killing, saying a Malaysian investigation into the death of one of its nationals is full of “holes and contradictions.” [AP/YONHAP]After South Korean “conservative media” published reports that he was “poisoned to death by two women agents of the General Reconnaissance Bureau of North Korea,” the Malaysian police “recklessly made it an established fact,” the KCNA said.
It said Malaysia pushed for an autopsy of the body without any prior agreement with the North and its representatives.
“Moreover, the Malaysian side clamored for a second autopsy without publishing the results of the first autopsy,” the KCNA said, claiming “the unjust acts of the Malaysian side are timed to coincide with the anti-DPRK conspiratorial racket launched by the South Korean authorities.”
It claimed that South Korean authorities have shown “excessive responses” to the case and that they openly discussed the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
“This proves that the South Korean authorities have long expected the case since it worked out a scenario for it,” it said. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but you have to love the fact that the THAAD issue is even to blame for the murder of Kim Jong-nam. What else could possibly be blamed on THAAD?
Two large developments in the murder of Kim Jong-nam today. The first development is that the North Korean embassy has been linked to the murder:
Royal Malaysian Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, left, addresses journalists in front of a screen displaying the details of the fifth North Korean suspect, Ri Ji-u, during a press conference at the Bukit Aman police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Detectives probing the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, want to question a North Korean diplomat, Malaysia’s top policeman said. [AP/YONHAP]A second secretary at the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia is the latest suspect sought in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, Malaysian police said Wednesday, the strongest proof yet that the communist regime masterminded the plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother.
In their second press briefing since Kim Jong-nam was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on the morning of Feb. 13, police said they were searching for a 44-year-old North Korean diplomat named Hyon Kwang-song, who arrived in Malaysia on Sept. 20, 2016. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
It makes sense that any murder of Kim Jong-nam would have had assistance from the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia should seriously consider shutting the place down considering the criminal activity conducted there. The second major development is that Malaysian authorities believe the two women who committed the attack knew what they were doing:
Khalid said the women knew they were handling poisonous materials during the attack, which occurred in a departure area of Kuala Lumpur’s budget airport, and had practiced the attack multiple times.
“We strongly believe it is a planned thing and that they have been trained to do that. This is not just like shooting a movie,” he told reporters. (………)
The case has perplexed leading forensic toxicologists who study murder by poison. They say the airport attack is one of the most bizarre cases in the books, and question how the two women could walk away unscathed after deploying an agent potent enough to kill Kim Jong Nam before he could even make it to the hospital.
Khalid noted the two women “were warned to take precautions,” and said security camera footage showed them quickly walking to restrooms after the attack to wash their hands. [Associated Press]
Malaysian authorities have completely ruled out the attack being a prank:
“We’re ruling out the possibility that the women thought the attack was a prank or even that they believed they were shooting a television show,” Khalid Abu Bakar was quoted by The Star, a news outlet in Malaysia, as saying.
“The lady was moving away with her hands toward the bathroom,” said Khalid, according to The New Straits Times, another Malaysian newspaper. “She was very aware that it was toxic and that she needed to wash her hands.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Someone has leaked the footage captured at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport of the attack and murder of Kim Jong-nam:
The biggest thing I take from this footage is that this was supposed to be a prank as the suspects have claimed what was supposed to be so funny about it? The Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah can be seen talking to Kim Jong-nam and then almost immediately afterwards the Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong violently puts a cloth around his face and they both casually walk off. Looking at the video I could understand how Aisyah may have thought she was part of a prank, but Huong looked like she knew this wasn’t a prank in my opinion.
I was surprised that Kim did not immediately try to get to the restroom and get some water to wash off his face. Instead he wasted time talking to authorities who eventually walked him over to a medical clinic. Who knows if it would have made a difference, but I would think immediately washing the poison off his face at least would have given him a better chance to survive the attack.
