South Korean government sources have indicated that the nerve gas may have been used to kill Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Kuala Lumpur. According to media reports in Seoul it could be the “Vx agent”, capable of paralyzing parts of the nervous system with the inhalation or contact with the skin, causing fatal respiratory failures.
Meanwhile, a man was arrested in connection with the murder of Kim Jong-nam, eldest brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, took place on Monday morning: after the two women, one yesterday with Vietnamese passport (Doan Thi Huong, 28 years) and one this morning with Indonesian passport (Siri Aishah, 25 years), the police reported that also the boyfriend of the latter was stopped, possessing Indonesian passport.
The woman arrested today would have an Indonesian passport, police said, while the one arrested yesterday had a Vietnamese passport. Reports of Kim Jong-nam are multiplying: TV Chosun, South Korean broadcaster, reported that Kim’s match was found through fingerprints provided by Seoul at the request of the Malaysian authorities.
The “Chosun Ilbo”, a Seoul newspaper, wrote that South Korean officials sent to Malaysia contributed to the identification, according to which death would occur as a result of poisoning. “Our officers went to the morgue to see the body of Kim,” said a government official, according whom “there was foam around the mouth, which is the typical signal of death by poisoning.”
The poison used would be “stronger than cyanide,” according to the Malaysian media. At the autopsy would have attended the North Korean ambassador and other officials, who expressed “extreme grief over the death of the Dear Leader’s brother.”
According to some unverified source, the two women suspected of the murder by poisoning of Kim Jong-nam, the eldest brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, would have “already” died in turn while held in prison: Japanese media reported it, citing Tokyo government sources according to which verifications would be ongoing.
Kim, who was assassinated Monday morning, was waiting to board at the airport of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on a flight directed to Macao. The government in Seoul has officially confirmed the identity of Kim Jong-nam.
Beijing: “We follow the developments of the case”
“China follows the developments in the case of the poisoning of Kim Jong-nam”, said the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Geng Shuang who, in the daily press conference, did not confirm the international media reports according to which Beijing had granted protection to him or to his family.
“We are following the developments,” ultimately pointed Geng, insisting that the case is “under investigation in Malaysia and not in China”. In China the story is having wide media coverage.
Source: ANSA