US, ROK to blame for assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, claims Pyongyang

UNITED NATIONS: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Permanent Representative to the United Nations has denied that the man assassinated in Malaysia was the half-brother of the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un, and that the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) should be blamed for the killing.
Kim In-ryong told the media here Monday that the case of the assassination "is the product of reckless moves of the United States and South Korean authorities aimed to ... tarnish the image of the dignified DPRK and to bring down the Socialist system".
Kim spoke in response to a question on the assassination during a news conference he had called to condemn a recent UN Security Council statement denouncing recent DPRK ballistic missile launches as a threat to international peace and security.
However, he acknowledged that the victim, who was poisoned to death at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb 13 by two assailants, was a citizen from the DPRK with a diplomatic passport.
"The United States and the South Korean authority are groundlessly blaming the DPRK, asserting that he was intoxicated by a highly poisonous VX nerve substance," Kim said, referring to the victim who has been identified by Malaysian authorities as the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un.
The ambassador said Washington wanted to "store up international repugnancy towards the DPRK ... to provoke nuclear war against the DPRK at any cost".
He also raised the question as to where the assailants were able to obtain such a banned chemical weapon as VX, pointing out the United States has "a stockpile" of such outlawed weapons.
Kim also said the US and ROK assertions that the assailants were unaffected while applying VX to a victim was an "absurdity". — Bernama