Half-brother of Kim named as CIA informant

Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong Un who was killed in Malaysia in 2017, was a “CIA informant,” the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Citing “a person knowledgeable about the matter,” the paper said Kim Jong Nam had met with CIA operatives several times.

Kim Jong Nam died after having his face smeared with VX nerve agent as he waited at Kuala Lumpur airport.

Two young women, one Vietnamese and the other Indonesian, were arrested and charged with the murder. They insisted they were tricked and had thought it was a reality TV show prank.

Malaysian prosecutors eventually dropped the murder charges against them and Indonesian Siti Aisyah was released in March this year while her Vietnamese co-accused Doan Thi Huong was freed in May.

South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit, which Pyongyang denies.

But officials at South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and Unification Ministry, which oversees ties with DPRK, said yesterday they couldn’t confirm the report by the Wall Street Journal.

Kim Jong Nam was the eldest son of late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

“Several former US officials said the half-brother was unlikely to be able to provide details of the secretive country’s inner workings,” the Journal said.