
Kim Jong-nam killing: Suspect 'was paid $90 for baby oil prank' - happy-go-lucky
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39088777
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tyingq
Earlier reports mentioned a spray bottle, now this one, in the text shown in
the video, says:

 _" The footage shows the woman in white lunging and wiping a man's face with
a cloth"_

Earlier reports also mentioned both women applying something to his face,
which sort of suggested a binary agent being used, where each part is non-
toxic on it's own, and only deadly when combined.

This one doesn't say much about the other woman, and whether she applied
anything to the victim's face.

Funny how these details change.

~~~
quirkafleeg
A lot of this seems funny to me.

Immediately after the attack, before the Malaysians had even publicly named
the victim, South Korean media was already reporting his identity, the cause
of death (poisoning) and that it was carried out by two females. Going
further, and without any evidence, they establish and spread the story that
they were agents of North Korea.

Malaysian authorities do not release the CCTV footage, but Japanese media
somehow comes into possession of it and broadcasts it, while a Japanese
journalist claims Kim Jong Nam was recently warned about criticising North
Korea.

The people who carried out the attack were Vietnamese and Indonesian, not
North Korean, and one of them claims she met with someone who looked Japanese
or Korean. This could mean North or South Korean.

The Malaysians say VX killed the victim, yet nobody else was affected.

The last time North Korea was accused (by South Korea) of attempting to kill
Kim Jong Nam, it was no more convoluted than trying to hire a taxi driver to
run him over.

Yet now they're using "binary concoction" VX (ah, now we're back to discussing
WMDs again), involving multiple assassins, and choosing the absolute worst
location possible, a public space crawling with witnesses and armed security
guards and covered by CCTV?

~~~
djsumdog
It makes no sense for North Korea to carry out such a public attack in an
airport when they are already viewed so poorly as being a totalitarian state
with a slave economy. They're corrupt, but they're not stupid.

This seems state sponsored, and considering all the conflicting reports, and
various news releases is various countries, I doubt we'll ever know who really
killed him.

In 30 years, declassified documents may even point to the US's CIA. After all
the US did cause the 73 coupe in Chile, Bay of Pigs, Iranian Contras, the
instalment of the Shah in Iran, MKUltra .. it would make sense that a State
(US, South Korea, Japan?) sponsored this and did it because they want another
war.

~~~
maxerickson
What is it North Korea would lose by carrying out such an attack?

The DPRK already basically holds the people hostage for the aid they do get,
so I'm not sure what further sanctions would be forthcoming from this.

~~~
quirkafleeg
Why would they even bother denying it then, in that case?

There's no advantage to North Korea of doing such an unnecessarily complicated
and risky assassination in such a public and relatively secure place, when
they could do it anywhere else, using any other weapon.

There _is_ an obvious motivation for countries hostile to North Korea to so
publicly frame them for this though, and bring up the issue of WMDs,
particularly a week or so after their latest missle launch.

We'll probably never know what really happened, but just because North Korea
is a bad place doesn't mean we should automatically accept everything they're
accused of.

~~~
merpnderp
The current leader executed his uncle with an anti-aircraft gun. I think the
natural human tendency towards pique and irrationality more than explains away
the obvious flaws in the plan.

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toxican
Kim Jong-nam's death is messed up enough, but that poor woman. She was
unwittingly used as a political weapon to kill a guy. She's gotta deal with
that forever, in addition to any charges or sentencing that comes of this.

~~~
Aqueous
I'm not sure I believe this story one bit. Looking at the footage her attack
is quite aggressive and she strides away very quickly. Also, VX nerve agent is
deadly in small amounts. The fact that she appears fine means she may have
been wearing some sort of protective covering. Why would you do that if you
knew it was just baby oil?

~~~
saycheese
Yes, VX is deadly, but no, it's possible to be exposed, wash it off, and be
okay. Reality is this is a secret weapon and what little research has been
done often does not become public.

~~~
M_Grey
I've never heard of that, unless by "wash off" you mean "wash off and take a
huge dose of atropine and some other drugs, while on the way to the hospital."

Then you definitely have a chance, but you'll have some interesting symptoms
for the rest of your foreshortened life.

~~~
ksrm
There appears to be a prophylactic compound that can prevent the effects of
VX:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyrylcholinesterase#Prophyla...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyrylcholinesterase#Prophylactic_countermeasure_against_nerve_gas)

~~~
M_Grey
Yeah, the injectors you get for chemical weapons is either atropine, or a mix
of atropine and just that. It can work, but it's not magic, and the dose
you're exposed to matters. It's also very much the thing you do to stay alive
until you can supportive medical care, not a cure or "vaccine". You also have
quite limited time to use it on yourself before you're unable to move well
enough to manage.

That said, since Jong-Nam probably got a small dose, that might have saved
him, but of course... who'd have had it? Who'd have known? In the military
you're trained to recognize the symptoms of nerve agents, because you need to
notice the _very_ early ones to have a chance... most people don't get/need
that training.

------
scrollaway
This really fascinating documentary from the 80s about nerve gas was linked in
yesterday's news posts:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjA0EQPeUGM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjA0EQPeUGM)

Only tangentially related but I really recommend watching. It's only 30
minutes.

~~~
djsumdog
Wow. Look at all the effort that went into developing these weapons. The sheep
incident alone shows how uncontrollable these weapons are.

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Tistel
The median overall happiness of planet earth will go up significantly when
North Korea rejoins South Korea and adopts the South's behaviours. We are a
strange species, we can go to the moon, but, struggle to see/admit such an
obvious mistake. Its like the cruelest political science experiment ever.

~~~
maxerickson
I don't understand what you mean by _We are a strange species, we can go to
the moon, but, struggle to see /admit such an obvious mistake._

"The West" has seen it as an obvious mistake for decades. It's the weird power
structure in North Korea that wants to perpetuate itself that is the problem
(along with China preferring to have a 3rd party buffer there). I'm sure even
China isn't especially happy with the situation, they just lack a clear path
towards improving it.

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woodandsteel
From what I have read, North Korea had motives to have Kim Jong-nam killed
because he was friendly with China, which is very unhappy with North Korea.

