Malaysia says VX nerve agent was used in murder of Kim Jong Nam

[webfact]

Malaysia says VX nerve agent was used in murder of Kim Jong Nam

REUTERS

 

People watch a TV screen broadcasting a news report on the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the older half brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, February 14, 2017. Lim Se-young/News1 via REUTERS

 

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was killed with a highly toxic chemical weapon known as VX nerve agent, Malaysian police said on Friday, citing a preliminary report.

 

Kim Jong Nam died after being assaulted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport last Monday while preparing to board a flight to Macau.

 

South Korean and U.S. officials have said they believe North Korean agents assassinated Kim Jong Nam, who had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau under Beijing's protection.

 

Police said swabs taken from the eye and the face of a North Korean national by the chemistry department of Malaysia revealed the presence of VX.

 

VX nerve agent, or S-2 Diisoprophylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate, is chemical weapon classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

 

"Other exhibits are under analysis," Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in the statement.

 

Police chief Khalid said earlier that a Vietnamese woman and a Indonesian woman wiped a liquid on Kim Jong Nam's face. They later washed their hands and fled the scene.

 

Airport camera footage released on Monday by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV shows the moment the women appeared to assault Kim Jong Nam, who is later seen asking airport officials for medical help. He died on the way to hospital.

 

VX is tasteless and odourless, and is outlawed under the Chemical Weapons Convention, except for "research, medical or pharmaceutical purposes".

 

It can be manufactured as a liquid, cream or aerosol. Absorbed in large doses, it is fatal after 15 minutes, according to the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, making it the most toxic known nerve agent in the world.

 

Malaysia on Thursday requested Interpol to put an alert out to apprehend four North Korean suspects in the murder.

 

Police are also holding one North Korean man, but are seeking another seven in connection with the murder.

 

(Reporting by Joseph Sipalan and Tom Allard; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-24

[Credo]

I think that is pretty strong stuff to be in the hands of some amateurs who thought they were playing a joke on someone.   I think they would have ended up either dead or very sick unless they knew exactly what they were doing.   

[ddavidovsky]

The police are still saying the women used their bare hands to rub this stuff on his face?

I can believe that the women didn't know how lethal this substance was, and apparently they didn't wash before making their escape. Perhaps the plan was for the women to be killed too...?

[Panda13]

The USA invaded Iraq with less evidence of WMDs than that ! Using it in an airport should be classified a terrorist incident and condemned on an worldwide level. If the North Koreans are at the point of this assault then serious questions in the U.N. need to be addressed.

[Aj Mick]

4 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

The police are still saying the women used their bare hands to rub this stuff on his face?

I can believe that the women didn't know how lethal this substance was, and apparently they didn't wash before making their escape. Perhaps the plan was for the women to be killed too...?

Can be delivered as a binary agent, thus only lethal when mixed. I gather the women did wash their hands in the bathroom after the attack.

[ddavidovsky]

18 minutes ago, Aj Mick said:

Can be delivered as a binary agent, thus only lethal when mixed. I gather the women did wash their hands in the bathroom after the attack.

Interesting. You have crucial information there which I haven't read anywhere else.

[inactiveposter]

Paragraph 7 says they washed their hands...


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[ddavidovsky]

20 minutes ago, inactiveposter said:

Paragraph 7 says they washed their hands...
 

Apologies for my reading deficiencies.

 

I was thinking of that Japanese video - it didn't show them popping into the toilets after making their escape, which surely would have been a crucial observation.

[PomPolo]

2 hours ago, Aj Mick said:

Can be delivered as a binary agent, thus only lethal when mixed. I gather the women did wash their hands in the bathroom after the attack.

 

2 hours ago, ddavidovsky said:

Interesting. You have crucial information there which I haven't read anywhere else.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Police chief Khalid said earlier that a Vietnamese woman and a Indonesian woman wiped a liquid on Kim Jong Nam's face. They later washed their hands and fled the scene.

It was in the report ddavidovsky

[IMA_FARANG]

I spent 5 years in the US Army and have had training on anti VX nerve agents training.

Not a nice thing to use in a crowed public area.

You would probably call it Nerve Gas in the public terminology.

I saw a demo film in which a healthy Goat  was killed by a VX mortar round in less than two minutes from inhaling the VX gas.

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by IMA_FARANG
correct typo

[ddavidovsky]

1 hour ago, PomPolo said:

It was in the report ddavidovsky

 

I haven't seen any mention of it being some kind of killer epoxy though - lethal only when mixed. That would mean both women would have to smear his face - and after someone has smeared your face with gloop, hardly seems likely you would let someone else do it again. Also, the second woman to do it would then have the fatal mix on her hands and presumably only has seconds to get it off.

It would make much more sense from the N. Korean agents' point of view if the women had died too.

[PomPolo]

 
I haven't seen any mention of it being some kind of killer epoxy though - lethal only when mixed. That would mean both women would have to smear his face - and after someone has smeared your face with gloop, hardly seems likely you would let someone else do it again. Also, the second woman to do it would then have the fatal mix on her hands and presumably only has seconds to get it off.
It would make much more sense from the N. Korean agents' point of view if the women had died too.

Fair point

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[ddavidovsky]

BBC report suggests the women didn't get it on their hands at all, but a mere drop was transferred from a cloth, and the whole thing was meant to be secret, with N. Korea claiming back the body before an autopsy.

 

Looks like a totally botched operation. Don't know why they didn't just drip it down the back of his neck - he wouldn't have even noticed, and his death would have been assumed to be non-suspicious.

 

[Chicog]

" Ten milligrams is sufficient for it to be fatal through skin contact and the median lethal dose for inhalation is estimated to be 30–50 mg·min/m³ ".

 

[webfact]

One suspect in Kim Jong Nam murder suffered effects of VX agent - police chief

REUTERS

 

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - One of two women suspected of killing the half-brother of North Korea's leader with the highly toxic VX nerve agent also suffered its effects, Malaysia's police chief said on Friday.

 

"She was vomiting," Khalid Abu Bakar said in response to a question about whether the women felt the effects of VX, classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

 

He declined to elaborate.

 

Kim Jong Nam died after being assaulted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. Police have arrested a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman suspected of smearing the chemical on his face.

 

(Reporting by Rozanna Latif; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-24

 

[Panda13]

Paragraph 7 says they washed their hands...


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

After they high fived each other too probably ! Now one of them is sick also.

[HappyinNE]

2 hours ago, IMA_FARANG said:

I spent 5 years in the US Army and have had training on anti VX nerve agents training.

Not a nice thing to use in a crowed public area.

You would probably call it Nerve Gas in the public terminology.

I saw a demo film in which a healthy Goat  was killed by a VX mortar round in less than two minutes from inhaling the VX gas.

 

At the Army Chemical School in Annistan, Ala, I watched a goat given a dose with a cloth over its nostrils while at the same time they injected it with Atropine to at the same time.  The goat survived and this was supposed to show us that the Atropine works.  Tough on the poor goat, but it didn't die.

[Baerboxer]

6 hours ago, ddavidovsky said:

The police are still saying the women used their bare hands to rub this stuff on his face?

I can believe that the women didn't know how lethal this substance was, and apparently they didn't wash before making their escape. Perhaps the plan was for the women to be killed too...?

 

Strange - on the report I saw, (sorry can't remember which from BBC, RT, Al Jazeera, or DW) they emphasized who the woman had kept her hands well away from her body and walked quickly straight to the washroom.

 

You couldn't tell from the cctv if she was wearing surgical gloves or similar protection.

 

Looks like they had a cloth and rubbed that on his face. 

 

But whatever, pretty unconcerned or uninformed about that toxicity.

[Grouse]

VX is an exceedingly dangerous chemical weapon invented by ICI in the U.K. During the 50s and developed is a nerve agent by Porton Down. If this is traced to N Korea it could be grounds to attack them.

[Baerboxer]

1 minute ago, Grouse said:

VX is an exceedingly dangerous chemical weapon invented by ICI in the U.K. During the 50s and developed is a nerve agent by Porton Down. If this is traced to N Korea it could be grounds to attack them.

 

But nobody will. 

[Grouse]

Just now, Baerboxer said:

 

But nobody will. 

Because they have nuclear weapons.

[quadperfect]

Trump might. 

[TheFishman1]

007 would of done it in a different way

[Andaman Al]

• It sounds like the women had been given a dose of Atropine before they handled this chemical weapon. It is a very clumsy thing to have done as this is effectively a WMD and not something you buy in a local shop! Potassium Cyanide would have been effective as would a bullet in the head at a more opportune moment. Attacking the guy using nerve agent in an airport full of CCTV is beyond the realms of stupid. Is The N Korean fruitcake trying to provoke a reaction?

[petesc55]

 

 

Not the 'stealthiest' way to assassinate somebody.    Sure seems like the process of execution was meant to make a statement, also.

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by petesc55

[Scott]

Off-topic post and reply removed.