North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s brother has been murdered in Malaysia, according to reports from South Korea.
Kim Jong-nam, an outspoken critic of his family’s dynastic control of the country, was assassinated at Kuala Lampur airport by two women who attacked him with “poisoned needles,” local TV stations reported.
The two women assassins are believed to be North Korean agents, escaped the crime scene in a taxi.
A South Korean government source also confirmed to a South Korean news outlet that the North Korean dictator’s brother was killed.
Malaysian police, meanwhile, told Reuters that an unidentified North Korean man died while on the way to hospital from the airport. The police didn’t confirm the man’s identity.
An employee in a hospital where Kim was allegedly brought, told the news outlet that the deceased man was born in 1970 and his surname is Kim.
The BBC cited a source close to the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office confirming Kim’s death. The source also said his body was undergoing an autopsy.
Kim went into hiding in Malaysia after the execution of his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, back in December 2013.
He was an outspoken critic of the North Korean regime and often spoke out against his family’s control of the country.
The brother of the dictator has been the target of the regime for years. He survived an assassination attempt in Macau in 2011.
Kim was a son of now-deceased Kim Jong-il from his non-marital relationship with Sung Hae-rim, a South Korean actress, who died in Moscow in 2002.
His eldest son was seen as an apperent heir to the totalitarian regime, but he fell out of favor after being caught entering Japan on a forged passport.
At that time, he told Japanese authorities that he wanted to visit Disneyland with his family.
Both North and South Korea haven’t yet officially commented on the reports of his death.
Kim’s demise would be the most high-profile death under the regime since the execution of Jang Song-thaek.
