SINGAPORE:(WN)-Vx nerve agent, a highly toxic
chemical, was used to kill Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Malaysian police said Friday. Police
Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said the substance was identified in a
preliminary report by the department’s Center for Chemical Weapons Analysis.
Kim Jong Nam died Feb. 13 shortly after two
women put the substance on his face while he was checking in for a flight at
the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia's capital. The report identified the
substance as ethyl N-2-Diisopropylaminoethynl Methylphosphonothiolate, or VX
nerve agent. It is a chemical agent classified as a weapon of mass destruction
by the United Nations.
Traces of the nerve agent were found from
swabs of the face and eyes, the release said. VX is the most lethal of nerve
agents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is
considered much more toxic than sarin by entry through the skin. “It is
possible that any visible VX liquid contact on the skin, unless washed off
immediately, would be lethal,” the CDC says on its website.
A dose of 10 milligrams on the skin is enough
to be fatal. The production and stockpiling of more than 100 grams per year was
outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. North Korea, however, is
one of six countries that are not signatories to the convention.
Malaysian authorities also claim that one of
the women accused in the attack suffered from vomiting after wiping the agent
on Kim Jong Nam's face. Bakar declined to identify which woman one Indonesian
and one Vietnamese who had gotten ill, The Associated Press reported.
Khalid said police were still investigating
how the lethal agent entered Malaysia. Police previously said the airport had
not been decontaminated. Asked Friday in a text message whether that was still
the case, Khalid said, “We are doing it now.”
Malaysian police had previously said no one
besides Kim Jong Nam had been sickened during the airport attack. If VX was used, it could have contaminated
not only the airport but any place Kim had been, including medical facilities
and the ambulance in which he was transported to the hospital. The nerve agent,
which has the consistency of motor oil, can take days or even weeks to
evaporate.
Some experts believe Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein used VX against Iranians and Kurdish forces during the Iran-Iraq War in
the 1980s. Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, which killed 12 people in a
sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system in 1995, also used VX in a series
of assassination attempts, killing one person.
North Korea says it doesn’t possess chemical
weapons, but it is widely believed to have one of the world’s largest
stockpiles. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense estimated in 2012
that North Korea had 2,500 to 5,000 metric tons of chemical weapons.
Police had said earlier that the two
attackers rubbed a liquid on Kim Jong Nam's face before walking away and
quickly washing their hands. He sought help from airport staff but died before
he reached the hospital. North Korea’s official, state-controlled media
mentioned the case for the first time Thursday, saying Malaysia’s investigation
was full of “holes and contradictions” without acknowledging the victim was Kim
Jong Nam.
Long estranged from North Korea’s leadership,
Kim Jong Nam had lived outside the country for years, staying in Macau,
Singapore and Malaysia.The two suspected attackers, and Indonesian woman and a
Vietnamese woman, are in custody.a
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