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CCTV camera footage of Kim Jong-nam’s attack at Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia was released on Feb. 19 by Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). In this image

Video footage shows that it only took 2.33 seconds for the female suspects to attack Kim Jong-nam, 46, in the incident that ended in the death of the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Considering that no one else was injured in the crowded airport and that Kim himself continued walking by himself even after the attack until he gradually lost consciousness and died, the toxic material used in the crime is thought to have been prepared through an elaborate high-tech process.

In a press conference on the afternoon of Feb. 21, Malaysian investigators said Kim died of cardiac arrest, but they are still investigating the specific cause of his cardiac arrest.

On Feb. 19, Japan’s Fuji TV released a five-minute video of security camera footage showing Kim Jong-nam’s murder at the second terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia on Feb. 13. In the video, which follows Kim‘s movements by stitching together footage from several parts of the airport, Kim enters the departures area by himself, carrying a backpack. Next, he moves toward the self check-in kiosk, at which point Doan Thi Huong (29, of Vietnam) and Siti Aisyah (25, of Indonesia) rapidly approach him and carry out the attack. It takes 2.33 seconds for Huong to wrap her arms around Kim’s face and then leave the scene.

Immediately after the attack, the two women split up and go in different directions, while Kim Jong-nam approaches airport staff at the help desk and explains something, pretending to rub his eyes. In the final scene of the video, Kim and the police are walking toward the infirmary.

Later, Kim was explaining the situation once again to medical staff before he lost consciousness and slumped over on the sofa. He died while being transported to Putrajaya Hospital, which is located about a half hour‘s drive from the hospital.

Even after being attacked by the toxic material, Kim Jong-nam continued to function as normal, walking around by himself and engaging in conversation, but he appears to have been killed as the toxin slowly spread. This has led some analysts to suggest that the toxin used in the attack had been prepared very carefully to only inflict fatal damage on the specific target. Some possibilities of toxins mentioned by Bruce A. Goldberger, director of the William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine at the University of Florida, are nerve gas, which is a kind of poison gas, and opioids, which are narcotic painkillers.

“Weakening a strong heart enough to cause what appears to be a natural death by heart failure involves a very elaborate skill,” said Pinkov, editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review, a Canadian military affairs journal, during an interview with China Press, a Chinese-language newspaper in Malaysia, on Feb. 18. Based on this observation, Pinkov concluded that Kim Jong-nam’s assassination had been perpetrated not by individuals but by a government agency.

If the toxin that caused Kim Jong-nam’s death is not identified in the postmortem, his official cause of death is likely to remain unsolved. Malaysian Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam announced on Feb. 20 that the results of the autopsy would be announced as early as Feb. 22.

By Hwang Keum-bi, staff reporter

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