[3] On 13 February 2017, the North Korean government assassinated Kim Jong-nam with the nerve agent VX in Malaysia after previous failed attempts to kill him.

[10] In 1998, Kim Jong-nam was appointed to a senior position in the Ministry of Public Security of North Korea, as a future leader.

[11] He was also reported to have been appointed head of the North Korean Computer Committee, in charge of developing an information technology (IT) industry.

[11] In May 2001, Kim Jong-nam was arrested in Japan on arrival at Narita International Airport, accompanied by two women and a four-year-old boy identified as his son.

In February 2003, the Korean People's Army began a propaganda campaign under the slogan "The respected Mother is the most-faithful and loyal Subject to the Dear Leader Comrade Supreme Commander".

[18] In an email to the editor of the Tokyo Shimbun, Kim Jong-nam wrote that after being educated in Switzerland, he "insisted on reform and market-opening", leading his father to decide that he had "turned into a capitalist".

[18] Kim Jong-nam at this time has also been described as "the closest North Korean ever to have been an international playboy",[19] and gained a reputation for "gambling and drinking and arranging the occasional business deal".

[24][25] It was reported in the South China Morning Post, on 1 February 2007, that Kim Jong-nam had been living incognito with his family in Macau for some three years.

[29] An anonymous South Korean official reported in October 2010 that Kim Jong-nam had not lived in Macau for "months", and shuttled between China and "another country".

He confirmed his identity to a group of South Koreans, which included a professor at Incheon University and told them that he usually travels alone.

[36] According to South Korean intelligence sources, Kim Jong Un had issued a standing order to have his half-brother killed.

A book by Anna Fifield, Washington Post bureau chief in Beijing, had earlier reported this, stating that he had been previously filmed abroad with a US intelligence agent, and had carried a backpack containing $120,000 in cash.

[5][6] On 13 February 2017, Kim Jong-nam died after being exposed to VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.

[50] His first wife, Shin Jong-hui (born c. 1980), lives at a home called Dragon Villa on the northern outskirts of Beijing.