Malaysian police; Kim Jong Nam was murdered with VX toxin
The half brother of the North Korean Leader, NDtBF, was murdered in the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia airport while he was waiting for a flight home to Macau. Two women rubbed a toxic substance on his face, the substance, according to the Malaysian police, was VX nerve agent.
After the announcement that VX was to blame, The Associated Press asked Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar in a text message whether decontamination would take place. He responded, “We are doing it now.”
He later said police were arranging for the atomic energy agency to decontaminate the airport and “sweep all locations which we knew that the suspects went to.”
Asked if people should avoid the airport because of fears of contamination, Khalid said, “No. No. No. But I don’t know. I am not the expert.”
[…]
VX nerve agent was detected on Kim’s eyes and face, Khalid said earlier in a written statement, citing a preliminary report from the country’s Center for Chemical Weapons Analysis
Nice.
According to the UK’s Sun, one of the women, 28-year old Doan Thi Huong, was a Vietnamese “entertainment outlet employee”;
The other woman was Indonesian Siti Aisyah, a spa masseuse;
According to the police, one of the women was seen vomiting after the attack – possibly a reaction to consumption of the VX nerve agent.
Category: North Korea
No wonder they tried to break into the morgue and steal his body.
VX. Unbelievably nasty stuff.
I loves me some VX nerve agent in my morning coffee…
So they’re saying that these women were not the brightest bulbs in the box? At least they are used to being used by men and then discarded.
I’m not sure Tom Clancy would have written that scenario.
VX nerve agent? YGTBSM.
So the next question is: how did the two women survive their exposure to the VX during the course of the attack?
I remember reading somewhere that VX is binary, and maybe each one held half the agent? That’s still unbelievably dangerous, and I’m inclined to wait and see if this holds up under scrutiny. The whole scenario is just so incredibly bizarre!
It’s binary when used in artillery shells. However the stuff these ladies were using comes ready to use right off the shelf so to speak. It’s a high viscosity liquid, about the consistency of motor oil and it is rapidly absorbed through the skin. So all they had to do was touch the guy with it.
During my chemical training at Fort McClellan, I saw rabbits and goats killed within minutes after receiving a very small droplet on the skin. Those young women aren’t likely to have been able to come up with VX on their own. Only governments have VX so this killing was a state action, surprise, surprise. But it also constitutes the use of a weapon of mass destruction by the Norks in a foreign state, technically an act of war.
‘But it also constitutes the use of a weapon of mass destruction by the Norks in a foreign state, technically an act of war.’
Excellent point. I had not considered that.
It’ll be interesting to see if any consequences are forthcoming.
Supposedly VG is also governments-only but Sarin was used in the Tokyo subway attacks a few years ago.
VG is not Sarin but rather a Russian insecticide so it would be commercially available Also, we’re not talking rocket science here; a good chemist can develop these agents in small batches, but it’s a risky business.
correction, GB – noted – thanks
Methyl Isocyanate (Bhopal, India 1983) is one variety of VX that used to be the active ingredient in aerosol insecticide, wasp killer being one example. In low doses it quickly kills insects but in higher dosages will maim and kill people. It was said that it is what Sadaam Hussein used on the Kurds. Another variety I remember from my NBC Traning in Basic was one that was carried in dual tanks and delivered via rocket where they were mixed during dispersal, each ingredient not so toxic but once mixed became VX. It could be that each girl was given one ingredient and once mixed on his face it became extra-toxic which might explain one of the girls vomiting because she had the second ingredient and absorbed some of the end product?
If they had enough VX on their hands to kill this dude, how, exactly did they survive?
How did the arresting officers survive?
How is it not still killing people?
I am not calling BS on this story, but I do have questions.
Four heavy layers of coconut butter. It forms an impenetrable shield. Hack’s wife Rosetta Stone uses that shit by the bucketload.
perhaps….that crap is nasty! LOL
The VX or the coconut butter?
Surgical gloves…
This was my thought as well. Latex surgical gloves would be fairly inconspicuous, especially if covered with some base or concealer from a stage makeup kit.
That would give enough protection for the short time needed to apply to the gloves, and then to the target, but I’d damned well make sure I tossed them as quickly as I could.
I’ll give him a thumb’s up b/c he’s the only person on TAH this week wearing a cover that didn’t have a SEAL insignia.
Spew alert!
From the story as I read it, it appears that they (may have *koff*koff*) carried it into the airport, rubbed it on their hands just before the attack, rubbed it onto NDs brother’s face (getting it onto lips, eyes, mouth; thus quick death), then quickly washing their hands before being arrested. At that, one still seems to have gotten some VX internally, hence the throwing up.
I remember well the training for detox after VX. Soap and water was not on the solution board.
It’s one of the most difficult agents to decontaminate which is why it is considered a denial of use weapon, much like a chemical mine field. It also does not readily evaporate which is why it is referred to as a “persistent” agent and makes it the most effective denial of use weapon in our chemical arsenal.
If I remember correctly, inhalation and absorption are the two main routes of entry intimate body for VX, thus one of them vomiting. VX Nerve Agent, talk about “Reach out and touch someone”!
“…entry INTO the body…” Damn autocorrect and me posting in a hurry.
For the information of all hands on Team TAH, here are some ‘Facts About VX’ from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
https://www.emergency.cdc.gov/agent/vx/basics/facts.asp
Bingo. Two quotes from that link:
I’m guessing antidotes are also effective if taken immediately before exposure.
The scenario is plausible, but it also seems “Jesus H. Christ!” dangerous for those performing the assassination.
Hondo, I don’t think they knew what they were handling. Oddly, I thought VX was pretty fast acting… the security video I saw showed the victim walking on his own power into the medical station, and it was a few minutes walk. I always thought you’d be doing the kickin’ chicken much sooner.
It depends on the dosage, get enough in one hit and one could automatically do “The Dying Cockroach”.
I believe effects are slower for absorbed doses than for doses acquired via inhalation or injection. Longer path to the bloodstream, and hence to the CNS.
Oh. My. Dog. What kind of threat did this guy pose to that skankazoid bastard half-brother of his? Who else is on Fatty Kim da T’ird’s list?
It appears that NO ONE is safe from the wrath of pudgy ‘lil Kim aka NDtBF, like is very cheap for anyone in Norkiland.
All the more reason to kill the slimy little fuck as soon as possible.
“…LIFE is very cheap for anyone in Norkiland.”
A Proud Infidel®™ Needs to do a better job of proofreading before hitting “post comment”
I think I know why this happened. Fatty Kim da T’ird aka ND:tBF executes anyone and everyone that pisses him off, including some poor schmuck who couldn’t stand up straight during an inspection.
Anyone, even his own half-brother, is a target even if he doesn’t live in Norkiland. Thus,o killing him off outside the boundaries of Mordor, er, Norkiland is a clear demo to Fatboy’s critics that like Sauron, the ‘long fingers of his shadow reach far outside the boundaries of Mordor’.
We carried atropine syrettes in Viet of the Nam. They took away the morphine ones.
Don’t recall nerve agents being used there except by CNN in their phony “tailwind” stories.
They still issue the Atropine and 2 PAM Chloride for Nerve Agent Antidote. I’ve heard DS/DS War Stories of some CO’s confiscating then because of some Troops using the Atropine injectors to stay awake on long missions as well.
HOLY CRAP! That’s a hell of way to keep awake. Saw a demonstration of a “warshot” auto injector at Ft Knox way back when. That stuff blew through what looked like a 2 inch thick telephone book. I would do that to keep from dying, but to stay awake…why not just stick yourself with a knife????
Yeah, never was too keen about sticking that thing in my thigh. My buddy said he saw a kid accidently injected with a live one during a demo when he was a trainee in the Corps – off to the hospital he went.
I was told of a KATUSA in Korea that nailed himself with one and was awake for the next 36 hours.
Will also “lock you up”. You won’t crap for a week
A phonecon I would love to overhear:
Malaysia National Police: “Hello, this is a request for you to activate your NBC crisis decontamination team to decon the Kuala Lumpur Airport of VX agent residue…”
Malaysian Army NBC School: “Holy Allah, shit just got real…”
Wow….VX and GX are some really nasty agents; how the hell did they think they could safely handle that stuff?
This is just insane.
As I mentioned above, they are also classified as weapons of mass destruction. Their use on foreign soil likely constitutes an act of war.
Wonder if this will end up in front of the UNnecessary Security Council.
What will the United Nothing do, mail a letter to NDtBF?
I thought it stood for “Useless Nothing”. But you could easily be right, that fits too.
A “stern” letter…..’cause that will really show the NORK’s the UN means it.
That would be a ‘Strongly Worded Letter’.
Guessing they’ll send a copy of the MSDS with it.
I doubt that safe handling was big on the concern list of the norks. Dead assassins tell no tales, and collateral damage didn’t make the list either.
They used a bar girl and a massage parlor girl. I doubt they knew what they were handling. So, I don’t think they honestly cared what happened to them. They were probably hoping they died, less witnesses.
Never an atropine syrette around when ya need one.
Gulf War Round 1, our CBR gear was stored on the other side of Jeddah from our billets.
Just because I guess. Never did get a good reason, very glad we didn’t need it.
Check out my comment on DS/DS war stories.
That makes perfect military sense. Deny everyone access to CBR gear because a couple idiots misused it.
Brilliant.
At my first Duty Station as a wet-behind-the-ears E3 I remember an NBC NCO telling me of an episode or two of Troops in DS/DS using their Pro-Masks in the bag as a pillow when the Auto-Injector activated while he was sleeping and it killed him. Whether that anecdote was true or not I still don’t know even to this day, that was *COUGH!* years ago.
VX is probably the most toxic nerve agent out there. I once attended a classified briefing at Dugway Proving Grounds, UT, back in the late ’60’s, where they showed us a film of a diluted small drop of the stuff dropped into the eye of a rabbit. The rabbit was dead in about 10 seconds. Also, in that same area of Utah the base had a mishap with that or some other nerve agent that wafted off the military reservation and killed about 5,000 sheep on adjacent land.
I remember the sheep kill.
Ditto
I guess he didn’t pay his bill at the local massage parlor and got a facial with a sad ending. Either that or he was a self-loathing homophobe. But I’m no grad student
According to info on the internet about VX……
“about en milligrams (0.00035 oz) is sufficient for it to be fatal through skin contact, and the median lethal dose for inhalation is estimated to be 30–50 mg·min/m.”
So why would these women not use a squirt gun or other similar type delivery vehicle to kill Kim Jong Nam instead of putting it on their hands and then rubbing it all over his face, while endangering themselves in the process.
It’s not like this shit is Aqua Velva.
So what does this incident imply about the current security and/or availability of chemical agents that are outside the control of recognized national governments?
This is not good. Not good at all.
Bet you ten to one they got it from the Nork arsenal…
I’m not taking that bet.
What I’d bet is that the Norks recruited a pair of low-information whores with the lure of a high-payout and supplied them with the VX – and possibly some low-level protection from the VX.
How toxic is this stuff?
Remember, the dose makes the poison.
for agent GB:
we have: LD50 = 28mg/Kg (skin)
LCT50 = 70-100mg-min/M3(inhaled)
LCT50 12000/15000 mg-min/M3(skin)
Now for VX:
we get: LD50 = 0.142mg/kg (skin)
LCT50 = 25mg-min/M3 (inhaled)
(15L/min)
1% lethal at 4.3mg-min/M3
granted my NBC training is over 20 years old, I have doubts that VX was really used for this.
Not to mention that the symptoms of nerve agent exposure are the same as exposure to any other organophosphate exposure such as the pesticide manufacturing industry or farming.
I think you’re looking at the wrong set of numbers, Olaf. Or you got a decimal point error when you did the calcs.
From p. the linked 2004 report, LD/50 for VX for humans is between 0.04 and 0.14 mg/kg when absorbed through the skin. That agrees pretty well with what you posted above.
That in turn means LD50 for a 220lb man would be no more than around 14 milligrams – or 14/1000ths of a gram.
https://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2007/Long-Term-Health-Effects-of-Participation-in-Project-SHAD-Shipboard-Hazard-and-Defense/VXNERVEAGENT.pdf
For comparison, a paperclip weighs on the order of 1/2 gram, or 500mg. That means the lethal dose is around 1/35th the weight of a paperclip.
I suspect getting that much of dose via a brush-contact against exposed skin would be eminently do-able. It would also be hellishly dangerous for the assassin, however, if the assassin used bare skin (like an ungloved hand) to administer the dose.
possible transcription error from when I took the notes (15 years or so ago)
for the confused out there, LD50 refers to the dose the will kill one half of the exposed population.
The thing the I have a ‘issue’ with in the vapor hazard to persons downwind of the source. there should have been a crap ton of persons presenting with symptoms of exposure.
There is something not right with the fact set as reported.
Given what I remember from my days as a HAZMAT Technician, LD50 refers to the dosage that will cause death in 50% of a surveyed population and LD100 is the minimum calculated dosage required to kill an entire group. LC stands for Lethal Concentration and is applied the same way.
VX is viscous and has low volatility. If it were administered as a liquid (e.g., direct application to unprotected skin), there wouldn’t be much if any vapor produced to endanger bystanders.
The fact that VX is viscous (it’s been compared to motor oil) and of low volatility is why it’s the only nerve agent considered a persistent chemical agent. Once it contaminates an object or area, it stays put – and active – for some time. Then when people later enter the area touch something contaminated with it, they get dosed.
The other nerve agents are as a rule nonpersistent due to being quite volatile. VX is the exception.
Gona need the DS2/STB polka. Just not at the same time and place.
G agents non-persistent V and H persistent.
Either way, bad ju-ju. Will have you break dancing on the turret floor before you know it.
getting slimed just sucks.
Just for the record first went to CBR/NBC school way back in 1976 at Ft Carson.
True – should have said “the V-series agents are the exception” vice VX. VE, VG, and VM are also not particularly volatile and thus are persistent (they don’t evaporate and disperse very quickly).
As a result, they also all produce relatively little vapor. For comparison, VX’s vapor pressure is 0.09 Pa. In contrast, water’s vapor pressure even at 0 C is 611.3 Pa – and it’s far higher at room temperatures.
Between the low volatility and the relatively small surface area involved, I don’t think you’re going to get a high enough concentration of VX vapor in a large room (like an airport concourse) from a small amount smeared on someone’s face to sicken anyone else. Far bigger threat to others IMO would be contact cross-contamination, particularly to the 1st responders who might have treated Kim.
One of the individuals involved in the assassination has now claimed she was duped into participating in a “baby oil prank” when she administered the poison that killed Kim. That’s also consistent with use of a V-agent; my understanding is that they’re all of relatively high viscosity (oily liquids).
It’s also possible that the agent VG was used vice VX. It’s quite chemically similar to VX, and open sources indicate North Korea is believed to possess a stockpile of VG. It’s also only about 1/10th as toxic as VX and has a vapor pressure not much different than that of VX. Both would make it easier for the assailants to get away from the scene w/o getting a symptomatic dose of the toxin. The reported short (20 min) time between Kim’s exposure and death might argue against that, though.
So, are these V-agents the kind of thing that would be used by assassins as a ‘slap’ weapon, i.e., bump into someone (target) ‘accidentally’ and/or slap/tap him as he passes by?
That was how ‘Rubicon’ ended – the fugitive wife of one of the characters got a ‘slap’ from a passing ‘assassin’ and collapsed, and the assassin dropped a pair of surgical gloves in a wastebasket.
As I said earlier, IMO that scenario is plausible. How practical? Dunno.
It would also be hellishly dangerous for the assassin.
FWIW: similar assassinations have reputedly been performed before by former Warsaw-Pact nations.
The Soviets are reputed to have murdered two Ukranian dissidents in West Germany in the 1950s using cyanide gas administered to the victims face by a special apparatus in a hallway meeting. The assassin met with each, dispensed the gas while holding his breath, and immediately left the area and swallowed an antidote capsule. The assassin later defected and described the method used.
And in the cases of Georgi Markov and Vladimir Kostov, a tiny platinum bead was used (ostensibly by the Bulgarian FIS; the KGB was reputed to have designed the platinum poison dispenser) to administer a lethal dose of ricin to Markov by using a device that deposited the dispenser under his skin. Both a sharp pointed object and a compressed air gun have been reputed to have been the implant mechanism.
They attempted the same with Kostov; however, after it had been injected Kostov’s poison dispenser malfunctioned and he survived. Markov’s poison dispenser was found during his autopsy. Afterwards, Kostov’s injection site wound was re-examined and his bead of platinum-covered ricin was discovered and removed.
Hmmm… the Borgias were notorious for using rings with a small chamber hiding poison under a jewel, which poison could easily be dropped into a goblet of wine. I think they also had ‘assassin rings’, heavily jeweled rings that hid a needle-sharp projection which could be coated with some quick-acting poisons.
Hemlock wasn’t hard to obtain, nor was arsenic, if you knew the right alchemist or had one of your own.
Both of these chicks give a “Hey GI, me love you longtime five dolla!” impression at first glance. I’d bet money that some shady Nork showed them a thin wad of cash, pointed to NDtBF’s brother, and handed them a couple of wipes. They probably had no idea what was on them.
You have to admit these fuckers are creative when it comes to killing.
Dead cocksucker.
There is a disconnect in this story. If the girls were told they were doing a “baby oil prank”,, then why would the Norkies bother to tell them to wash hands or give them wipes for decon? Seems like it would be smarter and more consistent with their rotten behavior to let the target and the girls all die to accomplish the mission and not leave loose ends, even if they wanted the world to know they had done the assassination of an “enemy” of their state. Strange.
This gets better and better. Now we find that Norkiland is running a spy station out of Malaysia, selling battlefield-quality radios illegally. I did not know they could make equipment more advanced than can openers. I stand corrected.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-malaysia-arms-insight-idUSKBN1650YE