Kim Jong-Nam, the son of Kim Jong-Il and the half-brother of current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, has died in Malaysia.
According to some reports, Jong-Nam ‘became quite ill’ at Kuala Lumpur Airport on Monday. Police reportedly describe the incident as “a sudden death”, and are currently awaiting the results of a post-mortem.
Other reports say that he was ‘attacked’ in the departures lounge of the airport, and died en route to the hospital.
“His head was wrapped in cloth believed to contain some kind of a liquid,” state police chief Abdul Samah said.
Samah also said that an unidentified woman was standing near Jong-Nam at the time of the attack, who hasn’t been seen since.
The estranged son of the former leader of North Korea was allegedly travelling with a passport under the name ‘Kim Chol’.
Jong-Nam is one of the most well-known members of the most powerful family in North Korea – but the relationship turned very sour in the early 2000s.
He fell from the good graces of his family and was consequently overlooked for future succession in 2001, when he was found trying to sneak into Japan with a Dominican Republic passport – when caught, he stated that he just wanted to go to Tokyo Disneyland.
Since, his whereabouts have been largely unconfirmed, but it’s thought he spent time in both Macau and China. He was noticeably absent from his father Kim Jong-Il‘s funeral in 2011, which fuelled rumours that he had been banished from North Korea. In the past, he has publicly spoken out about, and criticised, his family’s dynastic control and policies.
His half-brother Jong-Un took power after their father’s death, and in 2015, mended the formerly-burned family bridge and gave Jong-Nam a job working in the Japanese affairs department of the North Korean ministry.
There’s been no major news since about Jong-Nam, until today.
According to some sources, the US government believes reports that he got sick are false, and that Jong-Nam was murdered. While a post-mortem has not yet been released, sources believe that Jong-Nam was assassinated by North Korean agents.
We’ll update this story as more information arises.
Source: CNN / Wall Street Journal.
Photo: Yamaguchi Haruyoshi / Getty.
