A handful of Malaysian citizens have been barred from leaving North Korea as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate:
North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, sparking tit-for-tat action by Malaysia, as police investigating the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur sought to question three men hiding in the North Korean embassy. Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of "effectively holding our citizens hostage" and held an emergency meeting of his National Security Council. The United Nations called for calm between Malaysia and North Korea and urged them to settle their differences through "established diplomatic practice."
The moves underscored the dramatic deterioration in ties with one of North Korea's few friends outside China since the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. Malaysia said the assassins used VX nerve agent, a chemical listed by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.
[...] There are 11 Malaysians in North Korea, according to a Malaysian foreign ministry official, including three embassy staff, six family members, and two others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09 2017, @04:03AM (7 children)
Even if they used VX, it was used as a contact neurotoxin, not an aerosol WMD.
Context should really be used with some of these substances since as dangeous as many of them can be, the context matters a lot.
Is this really any worse than those Polonium teas Russia has been using for hits for >40 years? Both are technically made from WMD materials, but you don't see people blackballing Russia for doing the exact same thing.
Honestly for a North Korean assassination this seems downright surgical in comparison to their other activities.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 09 2017, @05:10AM (6 children)
But one big problem with VX and other very toxic compounds of that sort is that it has the potential to kill a lot more than just one person. Even used as it was, it could have harmed or killed emergency response just by touching the victim's face or the second poisoner's hands (which were also contaminated). Second, there's the question of just how much of the binary components were brought in. How much VX could have been made with what they had on hand? How many people could have died, if one of the people involved had managed to deliberately or accidentally aerosolize a mixture of what they had on hand, say in an airport? It's not just the murderous intent. It's also the profound irresponsibility and epic disregard for human life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09 2017, @06:17AM (1 child)
Could have, would have, except only one death, they could have sprayed it in the air if they really want to grab headlines like "40 DEAD IN AIRPORT ATTACK" with Kim as one of the victims, but that didn't happen. Seems like whoever put the plan together didn't want too much attention, but not above causing some noise.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 09 2017, @06:42AM
Could have, would have, except only one death, they could have sprayed it in the air if they really want to grab headlines like "40 DEAD IN AIRPORT ATTACK" with Kim as one of the victims, but that didn't happen.
My point is that using VX to poison a potential rival of the glorious leader is a method with considerable potential to kill a lot more people than just the target in a way that the more mundane poisons (or even, for that matter the exotic polonium) can't do. And just dismissing it as "a lot of people didn't die this time" is silly.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Thursday March 09 2017, @08:42AM (3 children)
I did not understand this:
Since VX is so toxic, how come the people who handled the VX have not died, especially, the 2 women who have been charged with the murder.
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09 2017, @08:59AM (1 child)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vx-nerve-agent-in-north-koreans-murder-how-does-it-work/ [scientificamerican.com]
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Thursday March 09 2017, @09:20AM
Thanks for the explanation and the link. It is, indeed, fortunate that there weren't more casualties given the deadly nature of VX.
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 09 2017, @02:57PM