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Speaker 1: It's February two thousand seventeen, the day before Valentine's Day.

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Speaker 1: Kim Tal is standing inside Kuala Lympur International Airport, staring

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Speaker 1: up at the departures board. It's busy. Throngs of passengers

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Speaker 1: glide through the airport's spacious hall, making their way from

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Speaker 1: check in to security. This is Malaysia's biggest and busiest

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Speaker 1: international airport. On a usual day, nearly a hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty thousand passengers travel through here. At nine in the morning,

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Speaker 1: Kim blends into the crowd. He's bald and pudgy, wearing

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Speaker 1: light blue jeans and a gray blazer, a black backpack

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Speaker 1: slung casually around his right shoulder. Kim gazes up at

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Speaker 1: the list of departures and sees that his flight to Macau,

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Speaker 1: his home in the south of China, is on schedule.

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Speaker 1: He begins walking toward the ticketing area. Little does he know,

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Speaker 1: but he is being watched. Kim approaches an air Asia kiosk.

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Speaker 1: As he enters his flight information, he doesn't notice two

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Speaker 1: young women, both thin with dark hair, slowly creeping up

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Speaker 1: behind him. Suddenly, a pair of hands clasp around Kim's

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Speaker 1: face from behind. Is as if someone is trying to

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Speaker 1: surprise him, like a game of Guess who, But instead

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Speaker 1: the woman wipes her hands across his cheeks, pressing her

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Speaker 1: palms firmly against his eyes, his nose, his mouth. Kim

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Speaker 1: jerks his head away just as the first woman releases

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Speaker 1: her grip. The second woman, wearing a T shirt that

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Speaker 1: says L O L, does the same. She smears her

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Speaker 1: hands all over his face. Kim thrashes his head to

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Speaker 1: break free. The woman yells sorry and scurries away, and

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Speaker 1: then as quickly as they appeared, they're gone. The women

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Speaker 1: vanish into the crowd. Kim chal takes a deep breath

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Speaker 1: and tries to collect himself. He checks his belongings. The

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Speaker 1: woman didn't take his bag or I D or not

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Speaker 1: anything from his pockets. All they did was smear a

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Speaker 1: greasy substance over his eyes and nose. It feels like

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Speaker 1: motor oil, and then it starts to burn. Kim staggers

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Speaker 1: the closest information desk, his nose starts to run. The

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Speaker 1: pain on his skin intensifies. He explains to an employe

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Speaker 1: that he's been assaulted, that two strangers came up behind

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Speaker 1: him and rubbed oil or grease or something all over

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Speaker 1: his face. He tries to wipe the grease off, but

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Speaker 1: the steam is so intense he can hardly keep his

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Speaker 1: eyes open. Very painful, he explains, taking deeper and deeper breaths,

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Speaker 1: Very painful. The attendant walks Kim to three officials through

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Speaker 1: labored breaths. He explains the story again, be attacked, the grease,

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Speaker 1: the pain. The officials nod and lead him down a

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Speaker 1: long hallway to the airport clinic. Kim begins to limp,

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Speaker 1: and his vision blurs. He groans in pain as his chest,

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Speaker 1: his lungs, his heart tightened like a clamp. Inside the clinic,

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Speaker 1: doctors measure his vitals. The burning becomes relentless. His breathing

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Speaker 1: is wapid and shallow. Somebody snaps a picture of Kim

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Speaker 1: chal He slumped in a chair, his jacket cast off,

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Speaker 1: his pot belly peeking out of his royal blue tshirt.

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Speaker 1: His eyes are half open, but he's unconscious. At this point,

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Speaker 1: he's barely breathing. Seconds later, medics laid him flat on

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Speaker 1: an orange stretcher and strap an oxygen mask over his

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Speaker 1: nose and mouth, squeezing it again and again, trying to

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Speaker 1: force air into his lungs. Soon he's ferried out to

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Speaker 1: the wine of an ambulance tron. It's the last thing

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Speaker 1: Kim Chall will ever here. Within fifteen minutes, he is

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Speaker 1: dead and nobody knows why. Hours later, as police review

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Speaker 1: Kim Chall's strange and sudden death, they're left with the

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Speaker 1: most basic and bizarre question, how did Kim die? Who

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Speaker 1: were these women, what did they smear onto his face?

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Speaker 1: And why of all people did they attack him? But

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Speaker 1: it soon became clear that Kim Chal It was not

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Speaker 1: your average visitor to Kuala Lympur International Airport. Discovered inside

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Speaker 1: his backpack is approximately one hundred and twenty thousand American

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Speaker 1: dollars in cash, as well as twelve vials of atropine,

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Speaker 1: a rare antidote that's used to treat deadly chemical attacks.

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Speaker 1: Analysis from a lab also reveals that the substance smeared

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Speaker 1: onto his face was VX nerve agent, one of the

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Speaker 1: deadliest chemical weapons on the planet. Within twenty four hours,

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Speaker 1: they learned that Kim Chal was not the man he

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Speaker 1: claimed to be. The name on his passport was just

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Speaker 1: an alias, a cover. The dead man's real name was

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Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam, and while most people had never heard

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Speaker 1: of him, International experts knew him well. He was North Korean,

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Speaker 1: the firstborn son of the former Supreme Leader Kim jong il.

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Speaker 1: Years ago, many had considered Kim jong Nam the front

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Speaker 1: runner to the Hermit Kingdom's throne. And his death it

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Speaker 1: became clear that this was more than a strange random accident.

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Speaker 1: It was an assassination and early Valentine's Day present from

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Speaker 1: the North Korean regime. The question is why Hi? My

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Speaker 1: name is Eden Late and on this podcast we dive

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Speaker 1: into the sad life and strange death of the man

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Speaker 1: who should have inherited North Korea's throne, Kim Jong Nam.

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Speaker 1: Join me as we explore the one time airs rise

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Speaker 1: and fall from Chong Nam's early promise he should have

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Speaker 1: been the successor to the palace. Intrigued, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of cloak and dagger, you know, James Bond stuff around

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Speaker 1: Kim John Nam to the power struggles that spelled his doom.

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Speaker 1: Anybody who thinks differently is a threat and needs to

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Speaker 1: be eliminated. This is Big Brother, the rise and fall

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Speaker 1: of North Korea's forgotten prince. Here's the thing you need

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Speaker 1: to know about the brothers Kim to the late nineties

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Speaker 1: to the early two thousand's North Korea watchers never considered

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Speaker 1: Kim Jongan, the current leader, to be much of a

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Speaker 1: threat or even a contender for the throne at all.

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Speaker 1: He was Chong Il's third son, he was unknown throughout

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Speaker 1: his own country. When it came to his father's hereditary title,

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Speaker 1: he stood in the back of the line. At the

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Speaker 1: front Chongan's big brother, Kim jong Nam. Many assumed that

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Speaker 1: the family patriarch, Kim jong Il, was grooming chong Nam

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Speaker 1: to rule the country to make him the quote great successor.

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Speaker 1: After cheng Nam graduated high school, he had become something

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Speaker 1: of a computer whiz and was awarded a post leading

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Speaker 1: the regime's Ministry of People's Security. The job put tong

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Speaker 1: Nam in charge of the country's police, prisons, and interment camps.

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Speaker 1: It also made him responsible for gathering intel from North

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Speaker 1: Korea's vast net work of informants who surveilled the country's

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Speaker 1: the centers. In other words, Kim jong Nam spent his

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Speaker 1: early twenties serving as North Korea's top cop. Kim John

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Speaker 1: was part of a cohort of Core Leadership. That's Michael Madden,

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Speaker 1: the founder and director of real leadership. Watch and as

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Speaker 1: you can tell, his audio is distorted, and that's because

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Speaker 1: he was using a burner phone user phone, so I

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Speaker 1: don't know what what you knows on my phone these days.

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Speaker 1: In fact, his call quality can be so distorted that

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Speaker 1: we've asked a voice actor to read his answers. Kim

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Speaker 1: Jong Nam was part of a cohort core leadership that

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Speaker 1: would go with people from the State Security Department, Secret police.

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Speaker 1: Madden remembers Kim Jong Nam's early days working for the regime.

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Speaker 1: What they would do is they would do inspections of

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Speaker 1: these economics sites, whether they were farms, industrial factories. They

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Speaker 1: would do these audits and they would find people who

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Speaker 1: they thought had been deceptive in their reports, and then

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Speaker 1: these people would be publicly executed and their families sent

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Speaker 1: to labor in central political detention facilities. Essentially, it was

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Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam's job to make sure people weren't defrauding

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Speaker 1: the regime and, by extension, stealing money from his father.

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Speaker 1: It was an important job and a signal to many

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Speaker 1: that someday Cheng Nam would be the one to push

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Speaker 1: the big red button. He'd be the guy high stepping

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Speaker 1: soldiers would salute as they marched through kyong Yang. The palaces,

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Speaker 1: the power, the attention, all destined to be his, and

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Speaker 1: then it fell apart. By the time Kim Jong ill

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Speaker 1: died in two thousand and eleven, Kim Jong Nam was

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Speaker 1: a pariah, an outcast. He hadn't lived in North Korea

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Speaker 1: for more than a decade, aid he'd been exiled to

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Speaker 1: the glittering lights of Macau, which is probably the last

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Speaker 1: place anyone would expect to find a royal member of

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Speaker 1: the Kim dynasty. Macau was and is China's capitalist wonderland,

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Speaker 1: the Monte Carlo of the East. It's a modern island oasis,

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Speaker 1: filled with flashy skyscrapers and neon lights. It's also the

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Speaker 1: gambling capital of the world, a place crawling with so

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Speaker 1: many high rollers it hauls in three times as much

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Speaker 1: revenue as Las Vegas. Anna Fifield, a journalist and author

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Speaker 1: of the book The Great Successor, explains why such a

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Speaker 1: city would appeal to the exiled prince. I think Macau

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Speaker 1: was really the perfect place for Kim Jong Nam to

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Speaker 1: be that the gambling Mica of Asia. Kim Jong Nam

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Speaker 1: had a reputation of being a playboy, being a bon

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Speaker 1: vivon loving, you know, going around the place living the

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Speaker 1: good life. He had one family and children in Beijing,

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Speaker 1: another family in Macau. He apparently had girlfriends all around

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Speaker 1: the place. He knew his wine, He enjoyed, you know,

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Speaker 1: being a rich princeling living the jet set life, much

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Speaker 1: like a Russian oligarch kid, or you know, maybe much

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Speaker 1: like a Hilton or a Kadeshian or something. According to locals,

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Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam was often seen hitting the slot machines

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Speaker 1: and betting big on bakara, dining at the city's restaurants,

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Speaker 1: and boozing it up in high end whiskey bars. He

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Speaker 1: had a reputation as a heavy spender who was familiar

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Speaker 1: with the back alleys of the world's red light districts

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Speaker 1: and the prostitutes who worked them. It seemed that he

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Speaker 1: loved living the high life, hopping from country to country

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Speaker 1: with a fake Portuguese passport. By the looks of it,

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Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam was no longer line to the North

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Speaker 1: Korean throne. He wore jeans and T shirts and even

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Speaker 1: sported facial hair, fashion choices that would be impossible in

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Speaker 1: his own country, and worse, he used social media. He

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Speaker 1: was posting pictures on his Facebook page standing standing outside

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Speaker 1: um various American armed casino chains. There. Online, he kept

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Speaker 1: in touch with classmates from his high school and even

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Speaker 1: like the page of a comedian who spoofed his younger

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Speaker 1: brother under the stage name Kim Jong Um with an M.

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Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam would even exchange emails with journalists and

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Speaker 1: was consistent with his messages. He had no political ambitions

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Speaker 1: and no desire to lead North Korea. He wished his

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Speaker 1: baby half brother the best, and lastly, he just wanted

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Speaker 1: to live his life with his family and be left alone.

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Speaker 1: Here's the ill Kim Jong Nam in his own words,

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Speaker 1: the appointment of a successor is totally my father's decision.

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Speaker 1: So he makes his decisions or he doesn't need to

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Speaker 1: talk to me or talk to another person. I think

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Speaker 1: this kind of question you have to ask my father

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Speaker 1: to my brother now, not to me. I can't, but

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry you cannot. So I cannot answer this question

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Speaker 1: because I'm not involved in political any affair in Astoria,

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Speaker 1: and that's how it was supposed to be. Just months

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Speaker 1: before Kim Jong Ill died, he prepared his will and testament.

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Speaker 1: In it, he gave the future successor Kim jong un

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Speaker 1: advice on policy and leadership. He also made it clear

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Speaker 1: that the new leader should leave his big brother alone,

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Speaker 1: stating that Kim jong Nam was not to be quote

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Speaker 1: targeted or harassed. But on February two thousand seventeen, as

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Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam stared up at the fluorescent lights of

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Speaker 1: an airport hospital clinic, dipping in and out of consciousness

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Speaker 1: for the last time, it became evident that somebody had

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Speaker 1: not honored his father's dying wish. Was Kim jong Un

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Speaker 1: hunting his brother? If he already had the power, the throne,

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Speaker 1: the honor of being named supreme leader, why chase Kim

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Speaker 1: jong Nam down to an airport in Malaysia, and why

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Speaker 1: go through such elaborate means to end his life? North

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Speaker 1: Korean leaders have brother dies in Kuala Lumpur. My name

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Speaker 1: CCTV footage services showing attack Kim jong Ki. Kim jong

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Speaker 1: Nam's death was never supposed to be primetime news. About

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Speaker 1: four hours after the so called Kim chall died, police

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Speaker 1: reviewed his documents and started making calls. His passport listed

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Speaker 1: his home country as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

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Speaker 1: or DPRK, the official name for North Korea, but detectives

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Speaker 1: made a mistake. Instead of notifying the communist regime of

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Speaker 1: the death, they accidentally contacted the embassy for South Korea.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't long before the National Intelligence Service, kind of

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Speaker 1: like South Korea's CIA, caught on, realizing that the man

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Speaker 1: called Kim Chall was in fact the estranged brother of

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Speaker 1: North Korea's ruler. It became clear that the man's death

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Speaker 1: was likely an assassinate sian that one mistake would change

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Speaker 1: the dynamic of the entire investigation. Shortly after, the South

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Speaker 1: Korean Intelligence Agency would leak the news to the press,

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Speaker 1: and within twenty four hours, Kim's death was making international headlines.

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Speaker 1: Journalists like Anna Fifield, who was then reporting for The

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Speaker 1: Washington Post, rushed to Kuala Lumpur. As soon as I

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Speaker 1: heard that Kim Jong Nam had died in Malaysia. I

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Speaker 1: got on the next plane to Kuala Lumpa and immediately

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Speaker 1: went to terminal, to the Air Asia Budget terminal, which

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Speaker 1: is where it happened. It all looked very normal at

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Speaker 1: that stage, and I walked around the kiosk where he

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Speaker 1: was trying to check into his flight. You know, it

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Speaker 1: took a long time, several days for the Malaysians to

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Speaker 1: realize that this was a highly toxic chemical agent and

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Speaker 1: actually caught an off this airport and do a thorough

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Speaker 1: deep clean. So it was a kind of surreal situation Asian. Wait,

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't have known anything had happened. In the hours

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Speaker 1: following Kim Jong Nam's death, detectives began pouring over airports

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Speaker 1: CCTV camera footage. They closely watched the movements of the

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Speaker 1: two mysterious women who had smeared VX nerve agent across

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Speaker 1: his face. They quickly noticed that these two women were

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Speaker 1: not acting alone. Investigators noticed a Korean man plugging a

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Speaker 1: black suitcase, shadowing tong Nam everywhere he went, from the

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Speaker 1: information desk after the assault, to the police, and then

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Speaker 1: trailing him to the clinic. Even as chong Nam was dying,

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Speaker 1: the man lurked nearby, only leaving once the prince was

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Speaker 1: lifeless on a stretcher. Immediately after, the man ducked into

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Speaker 1: a bathroom and re emerged in a fresh change of clothes.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't the only suspicious character investing gators found. There

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Speaker 1: was also a pair of Korean men, both in baseball caps,

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Speaker 1: carrying backpacks. Footage shows them standing next to the two

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Speaker 1: women minutes before the attack, applying a substance to their hands. Afterwards,

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Speaker 1: both men slip into a bathroom, ditched their backpacks, and

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Speaker 1: change their clothes. One even shaves his goatee. And there's

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Speaker 1: a fourth man. Earlier footage shows him sitting in a

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Speaker 1: coffee shop with one of the female assailants, apparently debriefing her.

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Speaker 1: In the main terminal, all four men check in for

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Speaker 1: a flight. A North Korean airline attendant plus a diplomat

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Speaker 1: from the North Korean embassy whisked them through security. Footage

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Speaker 1: shows the men smiling and laughing as they wait in line.

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Speaker 1: Days later, investigators would find their flight itinerary. The four

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Speaker 1: North Koreans who lived Kuala Lumpa in a real hurry

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Speaker 1: after that attack on Kim jong Nam, they went to

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Speaker 1: a Jakata Dubai Vladivostock pyeong Yang. They kong Yang, the

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Speaker 1: capital of North Korea. By the time the four nameless

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Speaker 1: North Koreans boarded their flight, Kim jong Nam's body was

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Speaker 1: still warm, and by the time investigators realized what exactly

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Speaker 1: had happened, the men were already back in the DPRK

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Speaker 1: Suddenly the death of Kim Jong nam was an international crime,

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Speaker 1: and as investigators tried to pinpoint the men's identities and

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Speaker 1: what role they might have played in the assassination, they

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Speaker 1: looked to question anybody who might have come in contact

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Speaker 1: with them, and that's when the investigations started to get

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Speaker 1: well messy. Here's the thing you need to know about Malaysia.

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Speaker 1: Until very recently, it maintained close ties with North Korea.

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Speaker 1: The DPRK imported oil and rubber, and even noodles from Malaysia,

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Speaker 1: while the islands received steel and iron in return. North

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Speaker 1: Korea's airline air Kodio, regularly flew in and out of

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Speaker 1: the country. In fact, high level North Korean citizens could

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Speaker 1: travel to Malaysia without a visa, and Malaysians could make

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Speaker 1: similar visa free trips to Pyongyang. Approximately one thousand North

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Speaker 1: Koreans lived and worked in Malaysia. The country shared such

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Speaker 1: close ties that in two thousand and thirteen, Kim Jongan

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Speaker 1: received an honorary doctorate from a Malaysian university. This often

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Speaker 1: surprises people. You've probably heard pundits called North Korea a

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Speaker 1: hermit kingdom, the terms images of an isolated society in

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Speaker 1: perpetual lockdown, cut off from the rest of the world,

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Speaker 1: and there's some truth to that. For most citizens in

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Speaker 1: North Korea, there is no Internet access, information is tightly controlled,

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Speaker 1: and most North Koreans can't travel freely around their own country,

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Speaker 1: let alone abroad. But a hermit kingdom, they are not

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Speaker 1: a hermit kingdom. That's Jenny town, a senior fellow at

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Speaker 1: the Simpson Center in Washington, d C. North Korea really

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Speaker 1: has diplomatic relations with about forty four countries, I believe,

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Speaker 1: and they have embassies in several countries as well. I

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Speaker 1: think there is a sense that we're more cut off

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Speaker 1: from them than they are from the world. Indeed, North

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Speaker 1: Korea maintains diplomatic relations with most countries. It has embassies

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Speaker 1: all over the globe, including in liberal democracy such as Spain, Italy, Sweden, Mexico,

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Speaker 1: South Africa, and others. It receives billions of dollars worth

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Speaker 1: of imports from China, millions from Russia, Brazil and India too.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of business interests. A lot of it

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Speaker 1: comes from Southeast Asia, some from India, especially in terms

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Speaker 1: of the mining sectors. There was at one time a

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Speaker 1: big push in europe Um looking at North Korea as

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Speaker 1: an outsourcing for it. There's longstanding history between North Korea

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Speaker 1: and countries, for instance, in Africa, in South America, and

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Speaker 1: especially with countries that have either been dictatorships or a

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Speaker 1: part of the communist block, and North Korea returns the favor.

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Speaker 1: Each year it illegally exports millions of dollars of coal.

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Speaker 1: It's spent decades exporting missiles and heavy arms to Ron.

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Speaker 1: It even deployed troops to Syria to fortify the regime

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Speaker 1: during its civil war. Countries that are willing to ignore sanctions,

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Speaker 1: these are all wide open um for the North Koreans,

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Speaker 1: and the North Koreans are very good at identifying and

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Speaker 1: cultivating relationships and and finding people to work with them

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Speaker 1: as well. And North Korea's net is wide. They've built

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Speaker 1: libraries and Mauritius sewers in Rwanda, a machete factory in Burundi,

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Speaker 1: and a concrete factory in Somalia. Some sources indicate that

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Speaker 1: they've even exported guns to places like Sweden. If that

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Speaker 1: surprises you, you're not alone. The image of North Korea

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Speaker 1: as a reclusive, closed off loaner of a nation is

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Speaker 1: a caricature, one that leads us to mock, infantilized and

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Speaker 1: underestimate them as a country. But it's not a that accurate.

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Speaker 1: North Korea has not always been a hermit kingdom, but

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Speaker 1: has actually been an active player on the international stage.

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Speaker 1: That's Dr Benjamin Young. I'm an assistant professor and Homeland

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Speaker 1: Security and Emergency Preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University, and as

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Speaker 1: he explains, North Korea has been meddling with international affairs

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Speaker 1: for a long time. They achieved this by sending their

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Speaker 1: people and ideas abroad, from building statues and palaces in

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Speaker 1: Africa and Southeast Asia to sending military trainers too as

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Speaker 1: far flung as Grenada. In the nineteen eighties, North Korean

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Speaker 1: trainers were sent to Zimbabwe to help Robert Mugabe cracked

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Speaker 1: down on descent and this was what North Korea was

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Speaker 1: able to do. It had its niches around the world,

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Speaker 1: and one of the niches was brutality. Nor Korea has

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Speaker 1: hosted foreign soldiers on its own soil, putting Irish revolutionaries

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Speaker 1: through boot camp and teaching Mexican insurgents the art of tekwondo.

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Speaker 1: The United States maintains that its stores have always been

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Speaker 1: closed to the DPRK, but that's not entirely true. So

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Speaker 1: North Korea actually took out full page ads in the

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Speaker 1: New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe. North

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Speaker 1: Koreans have paid for these ads, and so they were

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Speaker 1: essentially free to put up whatever they want. Ads aren't

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Speaker 1: the only things to have fallen through the cracks. The

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Speaker 1: water surrounding North Korea are famous for their seafood, and

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Speaker 1: the country salmon halls have worked their way into the

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Speaker 1: frozen food aisles of big box stores. There's even evidence

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Speaker 1: that the animation of some major motion pictures have been

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Speaker 1: accidentally outsourced to animators in North Korea. All of this

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Speaker 1: is to say that North Korea isn't a pariah state

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Speaker 1: you might think, and that was especially true in a

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Speaker 1: place like Malaysia. When Kim Jong Nam was killed, movement

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00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: between the two countries was relatively fluid. This made Malaysia

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00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: a perfect hub for illicit activities, from illegal arm sales

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00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 1: to espionage to money laundering, and it also made Malaysia

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00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: one of the best places for North Korea's assassins to hide.

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Speaker 1: The scene outside the North Korean embassy in Kuala lumpur Is.

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Speaker 1: You usually serene the two story building in the city's

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Speaker 1: western suburbs as a hulking for quiet compound, a seaside

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Speaker 1: McMansion surrounded by a thick concrete fence and swaying palm trees.

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Speaker 1: On February, the scene outside the embassy was much different.

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Speaker 1: Dozens of journalists crowded the front gate, microphones outstretched as

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Speaker 1: news outlets from across the globe jockey for a scoop.

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Speaker 1: That day, North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia held a news

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Speaker 1: conference and launched a string of denials. He denied that

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Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam had died of a VX attack. He

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00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,960
Speaker 1: painted from the heart attic at the airport it was

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00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 1: a natural dist He denied that North Korea was remotely involved.

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Speaker 1: Now there are so many rumors spread to the public

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Speaker 1: to defame the image of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,

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00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 1: the Malaysian police should bear the full responsibility for them.

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Speaker 1: He even denied that the body belonged to Kim Jong Nam.

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Speaker 1: The embassy has already identified his identity, named Kim Tull.

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Speaker 1: The request for the DNA simple is postus One. North

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Speaker 1: Korean diplomats argued that a formal autopsy or any formal

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Speaker 1: identification like a DNA test was excessive. They claimed that

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Speaker 1: Malaysian authorities were colluding with South Korean spies, trying to

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Speaker 1: quote besmirched the image of our republic at the time,

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Speaker 1: and A Fifield was on the scene reporting the story.

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Speaker 1: We had the North Korean diplomats um clearly, I think,

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Speaker 1: unsure of what to do. The ambassador was outside the

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Speaker 1: the embassy gates briefing the media flatly denied eyeing everything

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Speaker 1: that had happened. The North Koreans were quite frankly getting

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Speaker 1: sick of the attention. When I went to the North

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Speaker 1: Korean embassy in Kuala Lympa and went up to the

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00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 1: gates there, the North Koreans had removed the button from

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Speaker 1: the buzzer on the door so that nobody could ring

385
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: the doorbell anymore, because they were obviously so fed up

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00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: with pisky journalists coming to ask questions. What the embassy

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00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 1: officials failed to mention was that two North Koreans, a

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Speaker 1: diplomat and an airline employee, who had helped the four

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Speaker 1: mysterious assassins get their flights home, were camped inside the

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00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: embassy and they refused to leave. The Malaysian police were

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00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 1: desperate to interview the two men. Here's Khaled Abu Bakar,

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Speaker 1: the Inspector General of the Royal Malaysian Police Force, questioned

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Speaker 1: the embassy. North Korean embassy, who uh allow us to

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00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: interview both of them? Uh we hope that the for

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00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: your embassy were all previous. Allow us to improve them,

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00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 1: interview them quickly. If not, we will compare them to conpoys.

397
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: But North Korea held its ground. The men refused to

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Speaker 1: leave the embassy. In response, Malaysia refused to give up

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00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: the body, making the morgue the latest battleground. Journalists outside

400
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: the hospital morgue waiting to see who would come to

401
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 1: identify the body. You know, The North Koreans were insisting

402
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: that this you know, North Korean official called Kim Charles,

403
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: as far as they were saying, be returned to them.

404
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,680
Speaker 1: And then suddenly this happened. One night after refusing to

405
00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: give up Him Jong Nam's body, an attempted break in

406
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:05,720
Speaker 1: at the Quala lymp morgue, tensions flared. Within hours, an

407
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: armed Special Operations police unit was stationed outside the mortuary.

408
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: More media swirld so there was a lot of talk

409
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 1: that his son would come to come to Kuala Lumper

410
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,480
Speaker 1: to identify the body, potentially give a DNA match. This

411
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 1: was big news. Kim Jong Nam's firstborn son, Kim Hans Hall,

412
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: lived in Macau but was relatively unknown and rarely made

413
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: public appearances. Now the question was would he really show

414
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: up in Malaysia an a young Asian guy with geek

415
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: sheet glasses and you know, spiky cool hair at Kuala

416
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 1: Lympa that over those few days you know, suddenly had

417
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 1: the international media hounding him. A few days later, it

418
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 1: was rumored he came to identify the body, arriving disguise

419
00:32:57,320 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 1: as a special police officer for his safety. But nobody

420
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: knows if Kim Hansho did come. Regardless, police were able

421
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 1: to confirm that the dead man truly was Kim Jong Nam.

422
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: We have now established that kind is Kinjo Nah. We

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00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 1: have fulfield laws on his identification. A few days later,

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00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: the North Korean ambassador reappeared to the press and called

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00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 1: the identification a sham. The standoff between the North Korean

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00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: holdouts and the Malaysian police continued because one of the

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00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: suspects was North Korea's second secretary, a diplomatic post he

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00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: had diplomatic community and the airline employee remains safe as

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00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: long as he didn't leave the embassy grounds. In an interview,

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00:33:54,800 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: investigator called Abu Bakhar seemed to admit as much, you

431
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 1: don't have to be afraid. You should, you should, you

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00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: should corporate no arras on will be applied. But as

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00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 1: guards and journalists surrounded the embassy waiting for the persons

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00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: of interest to make a move, it became increasingly clear

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00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:21,840
Speaker 1: that North Korea was not going to flinch. Even Buckhart

436
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,320
Speaker 1: started to sound increasingly desperate. I'm saying the game that

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00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 1: the Korea not corporate thing with this indecent investigation. If

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00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 1: he thinks five, yes, we will win. Outside, definitely somebody

439
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 1: will come out, he said. But they didn't, and as

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00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: the stalemate stretched into weeks, the DPRK made a decision.

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00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: If the North Koreans hold up in the embassy weren't

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00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 1: allowed to freely leave, then all Malaysians in North Korea

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00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 1: would be trapped. Two The North Koreans took all of

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00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 1: the Malaysians in Pyongyang and the Malaysian diplomats and their

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00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: families essentially put them onto embassy erased and wouldn't allow

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00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:08,280
Speaker 1: them to leave North Korea until the North Korean nationals

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00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,920
Speaker 1: in Malaysia had been allowed to leave. Hostage diplomacy one

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00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: of North Korea's great tricks. Suddenly it became clear that

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00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 1: North Korea and Malaysia weren't just fighting over a dead body.

450
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 1: They were sprinting headfirst into diplomatic crisis of international proportions,

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00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: one that would entangle six foreign countries and three nuclear powers,

452
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:36,400
Speaker 1: the United States included. Meanwhile, remember those women who smeared

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00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam's face with VX nerve agent. As all

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00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:43,400
Speaker 1: of this drama was unfolding, they were both sitting in

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00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 1: a Malaysian prison cell. Unlike everybody else involved, they weren't spies,

456
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 1: they weren't diplomats, they weren't even North Korean. They were

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00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: sex workers, and they had been caught within days of

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00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam's death. And as they sat behind bars,

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00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 1: they both kept asking police the same questions. Is this

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00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,320
Speaker 1: part of the prank? I was told I was on

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00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: a prank game show. The story that unfolds would reveal

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00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: a bizarre murder plot with murky intent. That is, unless

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00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 1: you understand North Korea's motives in North Korea as in

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00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 1: the mall. Perhaps it's business. It's not personal. When somebody

465
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: challenges you, that challenger must be eliminated. He's sending a message.

466
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:42,279
Speaker 1: You know, anyone anywhere in the world, I can get

467
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,160
Speaker 1: you and it will hurt. If you have the attention

468
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,719
Speaker 1: of the world and the world will listen to you,

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00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:52,600
Speaker 1: then yes, North Korea is going to hand you down.

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00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,680
Speaker 1: I'm evenly join me next time as we unraveled the

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00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: most audacious political assassin nation of the twenty one century

472
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 1: and try to understand the strange logic behind North Korea's policies, paranoia,

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00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: and the reasons Kim Jong Nam was a marked man

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00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 1: Until next time. This is Big Brother. Big Brother is

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00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 1: a production of School of Humans and I Heart Radio

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00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:29,879
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Eden Lane. Lucas Riley is our writer,

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00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: co director and associate producer. Amelia Brock is our senior producer,

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00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:40,320
Speaker 1: co director and editor. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, ELC. Crowley,

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00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: and Jason English. Our fact checker is Aaron Blakemore. Music

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00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: composed by Jason Todd Shannon and Tunelauters. Original score mix

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00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 1: by Vick Stafford. Audio editing by Jesse Nice Wanger sound

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00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: design and mixed by Harper W. Harris, Audio correction by

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00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:02,760
Speaker 1: Josh Fisher, Boy acting by Mark Chung, Daniel Kim, Judy,

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00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:08,240
Speaker 1: Alice Lee, Sean mckeeth, Mike Coscarelli and Katie Wong. Special

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00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: thanks to Ryan Murdoch and Will Pearson. We like to

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00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: acknowledge the work of Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave and Doug

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00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: Bob Clark. Sam licensed from the Associated Press, The Star

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00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,959
Speaker 1: of Malaysia, A Jean France Press, Reuters and Kenny TV.

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00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the podcast, help us get the word

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00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:29,600
Speaker 1: out by leaving a rating in your favorite podcast app.

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00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 1: Until next time, I'm even Lee School of Humans