Kim Jong Nam was reportedly carrying antidotes to the chemical weapon he was killed with, as well as $125,000 in cash:
Kim Jong Nam, the murdered half-brother of North Korea's leader, had a dozen vials of antidote for lethal nerve agent VX in his sling bag on the day he was poisoned, a Malaysian court was told this week. Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese, are charged with conspiring with four North Korean fugitives in the murder, making use of banned chemical weapon VX at the Kuala Lumpur international airport on Feb. 13.
The vials contained atropine, an antidote for poisons such as VX and insecticides, toxicologist Dr K. Sharmilah told the court on Wednesday, state news agency Bernama said.
Atropine is used to treat nerve agent and pesticide poisonings, and is typically given intravenously or injected into a muscle. Kim Jong Nam didn't pack any syringes.
Also at CNN, BBC, and Asia Times:
Nerve gas blocks the biological action of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the body, essentially shutting down the nervous system. This stops the action of all the body's organs and leads to convulsions and death rather quickly. Atropine is designed to counteract the blocking agent.
As an antidote, atropine has to be administered very rapidly and absorbed into the body quickly. This rules out atropine liquids and pills as an effective counter to nerve agents because these means of therapy work too slowly. The best administration is through intramuscular injection.
Previously: Kim Jong-Un's Half-Brother Reportedly Killed in Malaysia
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Kim Jong-un's Half-Brother Reportedly Killed in Malaysia
Kim Jong-un's estranged half-brother has reportedly been killed:
The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been killed in Malaysia, South Korean and Malaysian sources say. Kim Jong-nam, 45, is said to have been targeted at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. A source close to the Malaysian PM's office told the BBC that Mr Kim was killed in the city, saying his body was now undergoing an autopsy.
Kim Jong-nam was the eldest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Also at Bloomberg, NYT, Reuters, and DW.
Eldest Son of Former North Korean Dictator Assassinated
In a story filed at 23:22 GMT 2017-02-14, China-based SINA reports
[...] South Korea's TV Chosun, a cable television network, said that Kim was poisoned at Kuala Lumpur airport by two women believed to be North Korean operatives, who were at large, citing multiple South Korean government sources.
However, Selangor Police chief Abdul Samah Mat was reported to have said that a woman had approached Kim Jong-nam at the airport departure lounge and covered the victim's head with a cloth which contained an unidentified liquid.
[...] In 2001, Kim Jong-nam was caught at an airport in Japan traveling on a fake passport, saying he had wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
He was known to travel to Hong Kong, Macao and the Chinese mainland. He said several times over the years that he had no interest in leading his country.
Numerous North Koreans of influence who were suspected of less than total loyalty to the regime have been killed, apparently at the order his brother, the dictator. It appears that this latest death was simply tying up a loose end.
Earlier reports of poisoned needles or sprayed poison appear to lack credibility.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday December 04 2017, @02:55PM (7 children)
Suggests it was a specific poison weapon known to him - maybe it's commonly used in North Korea. They probably attacked him where they did because for some reason he couldn't carry a syringe (not allowed on the plane?); they knew this was the window where he wouldn't have access to an antidote.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 04 2017, @03:08PM (6 children)
It seems more like North Korea has killed with nerve agents before (not necessarily VX each time), and atropine broadly protects against that class of toxins. I believe he intended to grab syringes at his destination and didn't expect to get targeted at an airport. Whoops.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @03:44PM (2 children)
What a petty little fat-fuck that would do this to his brother. One day you fat-sadist will get yours. Hopefully they will hang him using a chain like they did with that elephant (terrible story), so as not to have the rope snap.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday December 04 2017, @07:39PM (1 child)
> What a petty little fat-fuck that would do this to his brother.
Somebody needs a history book. Lots of influential siblings of emperors/kings have had accidents over the centuries. Related to lots of kings/emperors (and regularly their male heirs) having accidents at the instigation of someone who knows where they stand in the succession order.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday December 04 2017, @11:15PM
What's interesting in this case: Kim Jong Nam by all accounts had absolutely no interest in running North Korea. However, he still presented a threat to Kim Jong Un, because if his generals decided to go against him they have to find another member of the Kim family to rally around (otherwise, all the NK propaganda is shown to be farcically wrong, and the generals go down with Kim Jong Un).
And yes, that can happen in monarchies. To use a fictional example, in Game of Thrones, Cersei Lannister orders the bastard sons of King Robert Baratheon killed, precisely because any of them could become a rallying point for opposition to her son's rule.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday December 04 2017, @04:46PM (2 children)
If I recall the story correctly, he sought medical help at the airport after the attack. Why didn't he express his suspicion right there, present the antidote and have it injected? Or have the medical staff on hold to wait for first signs of symptoms?
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Monday December 04 2017, @06:07PM (1 child)
The thing is, he was treated [straitstimes.com] with atropine. So maybe he did.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Spook brat on Monday December 04 2017, @10:08PM
I used to carry atropine as part of my Army duties; I was the "combat lifesaver" for the unit, so I had a bagful of the injectors. Each soldier would only carry a single dose (which is maybe enough to keep them alive until I could get to them), then I was authorized to inject up to 6 more (total of 7) until they displayed signs of atropine toxicity. We didn't trust individual soldiers to carry enough for a full treatment (they'd get broken/"lost"). If K.J.N. was carrying a standard soldier's load and airport medics didn't know how to respond to nerve agent poisoning in a patient, then he could have used the drugs he was carrying as directed on the label and still died.
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(Score: 2) by beckett on Monday December 04 2017, @08:16PM
Perhaps what Kim Jong Nam had on him could be some insight into everyday carry items for North Korean upper management. Obviously most of us don't carry vials of atropine everyday; perhaps this is some indication of how NK bourgeois views the scope of external threats; the fatal attack on Kim (if it was done by NK; has this been confirmed?) may also shed light on how they would target an assassination.
Also interesting is Kim Jong Nam was personally carrying these; i wonder if that means he wasn't traveling with a bodyguard or posse.