SEOUL — (CNN) Two North Korean ministries orchestrated the plot to kill Kim Jong Nam on the orders of his half-brother, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea’s spy agency has said.
Lawmakers in Seoul, who were briefed by the country’s intelligence officials, said the North’s foreign ministry and ministry of national security had recruited one of the female suspects in Kim’s murder.
“The assassination of Kim Jong Nam was an act of systematic terror ordered by Kim Jong Un,” South Korean lawmaker Kim Byung-kee said in a televised address. “The operation was conducted with two assassination groups and one supporting group.”
Kim Jong Nam was accosted by two women at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13, while on his way to board a plane to the Chinese-territory of Macau.
He died on his way to hospital, less than 20 minutes later, according to Malaysian investigators, who said the women had attacked him with a VX nerve agent.
Three suspects are in custody, including two women from Vietnam and Indonesia who were caught on video smearing a substance on Kim’s face.
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