THE death of the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader was caused by the banned VX nerve agent, a court in Malaysia has heard.
A report, submitted as evidence at a trial in Malaysia’s High Court, stated VX was found not just on Kim Jong Nam’s face and eyes but also in his blood, urine, clothing and bag.
The 11-page report said an examination of Kim’s body showed damage to his organs, including part of the brain, both lungs, his liver and spleen.
Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam have pleaded not guilty to killing Kim on February 13 at a crowded Kuala Lumpur airport terminal.
They are accused of wiping VX on Kim’s face in an assassination widely thought to have been orchestrated by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The women have said they thought they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera TV show and were tricked by men suspected of being North Korean agents.
Mohamad Shah Mahmood, one of two pathologists who examined Kim’s body, told the court “the cause of death is acute VX nerve agent poisoning”, and that there were no other contributing factors.
The post-mortem report said toxicology tests found traces of drugs in his body used to treat diabetes, hypertension and gout.
The report gave Kim’s age as 46 and his name as Kim Chol, the pseudonym he used in the North Korean passport he carried at the time of his death.
Kim weighed 96 kilograms (211lb) and had tattoos on his chest, arms and back, including a coloured dragon head breathing fire and a man with two fish-like figures, the report said.
North Korea has a history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime and its chemical weapons arsenal is believed to include VX.
Its government has denied any role in the killing and has not even acknowledged the dead man was Kim Jong Nam.
The eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding, Kim reportedly fell out of favour in 2001 when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
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