Kim Jong-un's half-brother's surprising secret emerges
The slain half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was reportedly an informant for the CIA.
On February 13, 2017, when Kim Jong-nam appeared at a check-in counter at a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal in Malaysia, he was jumped by two women who smeared something on his face.
He soon began to feel ill, found his way to a medical station and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He was dead within a matter of hours.
However, an unnamed source “knowledgeable about the matter” has told The Wall Street Journal the North Korean leader’s half-brother was a CIA informant.
It’s not clear exactly what his role was but Mr Kim was reportedly in Malaysia to meet his CIA contact.
Reuters could not independently confirm the story. The CIA declined to comment.
The Journal quoted the source as saying "there was a nexus" between the CIA and Mr Kim.
"Several former US officials said the half-brother, who had lived outside of North Korea for many years and had no known power base in Pyongyang, was unlikely to be able to provide details of the secretive country's inner workings," the Journal said.
The former officials also said Mr Kim had been almost certainly in contact with security services of other countries, particularly China's, the Journal said.
His role as a CIA informant is also mentioned in a new book about Kim Jong-un, "The Great Successor", by Washington Post reporter Anna Fifield that is due to be published on Tuesday.
Fifield said Mr Kim usually met his handlers in Singapore and Malaysia, citing a source with knowledge of the intelligence.
The book says that security camera footage from Mr Kim's last trip to Malaysia showed him in a hotel elevator with an Asian-looking man who was reported to be a US intelligence agent.
It said Kim's backpack contained A$174,000 in cash, which could have been payment for intelligence-related activities, or earnings from his casino businesses.
South Korean and US officials have said the North Korean authorities had ordered the assassination of Mr Kim, who had been critical of his family's dynastic rule.
Pyongyang has denied the allegation.
– with The Associated Press and Reuters
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