South Korea's top spy chief said Wednesday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un personally ordered the assassination of his half-brother, who died Monday night after being attacked at a Malaysian airport.
National Intelligence Service Director Lee Byung-ho told South Korean lawmakers in a private meeting that Kim Jong Un had previously attempted to kill Kim Jong Nam after coming to power in 2011, only this time the slaying was successful, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"The longstanding order has been executed," Lee Cheol-woo, chairman of South Korea's National Assembly Intelligence Committee, told a press briefing on Wednesday. "It reflects Kim Jong Un’s propensity for paranoia, rather than his calculated act of removing a threat to his rule."
A woman carrying a Vietnamese travel document was arrested at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday in connection with Kim's death.
South Korean intelligence agencies believe Kim was killed by two women who attacked him with a poison-tinged cloth. The dictator's half-brother died en route to the hospital.
Malaysian police official Fadzil Ahmat told Reuters that Kim was at the airport's budget terminal awaiting a flight to Macau on Monday when someone grabbed his face from behind. He immediately felt dizzy and went to an information desk for help.
Malaysian authorities denied a request by North Korean officials to turnover the body without a postmortem, according to WSJ.
"If the murder of Kim Jong Nam was confirmed to be committed by the North Korean regime, that would clearly depict the brutality and inhumanity of the Kim Jong Un regime," South Korean Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said.
Kim had publicly advocated for economic reform and criticized his family's dynastic control of Pyongyang. He was living with his second wife in the Chinese territory of Macau under Beijing's protection.