The public assassination of a North Korean exile in a busy international airport terminal

Countries & Cities · Published 3 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 2017, the eldest son of North Korea’s former leader was ambushed at a Malaysian airport. Using a banned nerve agent, two women carried out an attack that would eventually trigger international sanctions and sever diplomatic ties, revealing the lethal reach of a regime operating far beyond its own borders.

Kim Jong-Nam, the eldest son of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il, had been living in exile since 2003 after falling out of favor with his family. On February 13, 2017, while waiting for a flight to Macau at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, he was approached by two women who smeared a substance on his face. He died shortly after while being transported to a hospital. The substance was later identified as VX, a chemical weapon banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

The two women involved, Siti Aisyah and Đoàn Thị Hương, were initially charged with murder, though they later claimed they were deceived into participating in what they believed was a prank. While the charges against them were eventually dropped or reduced, the incident sparked a major diplomatic crisis. Malaysia and North Korea ultimately severed diplomatic ties, and the United States relisted North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in November 2017, citing the assassination as a primary justification.

It is widely believed that the operation was ordered by Kim Jong-Nam’s half-brother, Kim Jong Un, who had consolidated power in North Korea following his father's death in 2011. The assassination was viewed by South Korean officials as a continuation of the regime's brutal internal purges, which had previously included the 2013 execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle, Jang Song-Thaek. Reports later suggested that Kim Jong-Nam had been a source for the CIA, adding a layer of international espionage to his high-profile death.

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