That is the suggestion from a source familiar with the case, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The agency quoted the source as saying that agents of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s spy agency, had carried out the killing by taking advantage of a security loophole created between Jong Nam’s bodyguards and Malaysian police at klia2, which is Malaysia’s low-cost carrier airport in Sepang.
Jong Nam, 45, who was the eldest son of the late North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, was said to have been killed by two women who are believed to be spies.
He was reportedly poisoned by the two women on Monday at the airport, where he was scheduled to take a flight to Macau. Jong Nam is the half-brother of current North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
However, Bernama quoted Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai as stating that klia2 was a secure site that had the “best security system”.
“It is vital for us to have the best security system and our airport is safe,” the national news agency quoted him as saying.
Japan’s Kyodo news said the two North Korean women who allegedly assassinated Jong Nam may already be dead.
“There have been reports that the two may already be dead,” the news outlet said, citing a Japanese government official, who did not specify the cause of deaths.
The killing, which is the latest in a series of purges Jong Un has carried out since taking office five years ago, also raised questions as to the stability of his grip on power, Yonhap reported.
“I think it speaks to the question of how much resistance there is inside the country.
“I know there’re a lot of people who say five years in, the transition is stable. But he sacked the minister of state security last month and now kills the elder brother.
“Doesn’t look so stable to me,” Victor Cha, a Georgetown University professor and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Yonhap.
Another expert on North Korea said it was obvious the order for the killing came from the North Korean leader himself, especially considering previous attempts on Jong Nam’s life.
“In looking for a motive for the murder, there is a Latin phrase for it, ‘Qui bono?’ (‘Who benefits?’). There are very few who would directly benefit from Jong Nam’s death other than his half-brother in Pyongyang.
“The motivation could be a a continuing sense of paranoia on the part of Kim Jong Un,” Mark Tokola, a former senior diplomat and current vice-president of the Korea Economic Institute of America, was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
“Whether or not Kim Jong Nam was actively plotting against Kim Jong Un, and there is scant evidence of that, he provided an alternative for North Koreans who would want to depose of Kim Jong Un,” Tokola added.
This would not be the first close relative that Jong Un has eliminated since he took over from his father
In December 2013, Jong Un ordered the execution of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was considered the second most powerful person after the death of Kim Jong Il. Jang was married to Jong Il’s sister.
Meanwhile, Tokola suggested that the killing of Jong Nam could be seen as another North Korean affront to China.
“Kim Jong Nam has been living mostly in Macau, certainly under Chinese protection, and was quoted in 2012 as saying that North Korea needed ‘Chinese-style economic reform’.
“Some commentators have theorised that the government of China was keeping Kim Jong Nam in reserve with the option of helping him assume power if Kim Jong Un fell in the future.
“His uncle, Jang Sung-taek, had also been too close to China for Kim Jong Un’s taste, the same may have been true of Kim Jong Nam,” Tokola said, according to Yonhap.
The killing comes just days after China joined the United Nations, the United States and Japan in condemning a successful ballistic missile test launch carried out by Pyongyang.