Kim Jong Un’s brother, who was killed in Malaysia on Monday, begged the North Korean leader to spare his life after escaping an earlier assassination attempt, the head of South Korean intelligence said on Wednesday.
Kim Jong Nam wrote to the supreme leader in 2012 to ask him to spare his life and those of his family, Lee Byung-ho, director of the National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers in Seoul. Mr Lee said Pyongyang had been attempting to kill the elder Kim, who was once seen as the heir-apparent to the North Korean leadership, for five years.
Malaysian police said a 28-year-old woman with a Vietnamese passport was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the investigation. The 46-year-old Kim’s grisly death speaks volumes about the nature of the reclusive regime and the boundaries it will cross, both familial and geographic, to solidify its position. For observers of the North, the assassination is a show of absolute power, a display of the dictator’s unshackled might and a warning to domestic rivals.