Saturday 25 February 2017

Malaysia airport terminal declared safe after Kim Jong-nam assassination


The airport terminal where the half-brother of North Korea's leader was killed with a nerve agent has been declared free of any "hazardous material" by Malaysian police. Security teams in protective suits had earlier swept the area. Malaysia's health minister said that an autopsy suggested the toxin used to kill Kim Jong-nam caused "very serious paralysis". Tests show Mr Kim was killed with the highly toxic nerve agent VX. An Indonesian woman arrested for the murder has said she was given 400 Malaysian ringgit ($90; £72) to carry out a prank. Siti Aisyah, 25, told Indonesian embassy officials that she was given the cash to smear Kim Jong-nam's face with "baby oil" as part of a reality show joke. VX is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. A drop on the skin can kill in minutes.



Mr Kim died two weeks ago after two women accosted him briefly in a check-in hall at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's low-cost carrier terminal, known as KLIA2.
Health Minister S Subramaniam said the discovery that the VX toxin was used confirmed the hospital's autopsy result, which suggested that a "chemical agent caused very serious paralysis", leading to death "in a very short period of time".  The airport has been swept for toxic chemicals by various specialised police teams, forensic experts, the fire department's hazardous materials unit and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board.

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