Killing Kim

"Thank you," Diogenes said to me as I came in this morning.

"For what?"

"For being patient with my recent catharsis. I truly had not understood how the proximity to VX had traumatized me until the episode of Kim Jong-nam arose. And thank you for your patience with my putting you off regarding that unfortunate gentleman. I am now ready to discuss his case."

I sat, all ears.       

"As you know, Kim Jong-nam was accosted in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13 of this year by a woman who approached him from behind and smeared a substance which is believed to have been VX nerve agent on his face. He requested medical attention and was taken to the airport clinic. An ambulance was called but Kim died en route to hospital.

"Let me remind you briefly of the qualities of VX. It is odorless, tasteless and ranges in color from clear to light brown. It can be mistaken for many innocuous substances--mineral oil, for example. One of the alleged assassins said she thought she was putting baby oil on Mr. Kim's face.

"The lethal dose of VX is estimated to be approximately 10 milligrams, absorbed through the skin. There's no good way to translate that into more familiar terms, but here's an extreme approximation: If the assassin applied approximately a half-teaspoon of the agent to Mr. Kim's face, he received more than 2,000 times the lethal dose. Put another way, had that amount of VX been spread throughout the airport, on seats, door handles and vending machine buttons, for example, it would have been sufficient to kill more than 2,000 people.

"Why attack this particular person? It's known that his half brother, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, has had a "hit" out on him for years. Perhaps the killing was a means of fulfilling that contract. But there is good evidence that this assassination was carried out by agents of North Korea. Such an operation could have been undertaken at almost any time, so another question that must be asked is, 'Why now?'


"It's possible that Kim Jong-un simply wanted to remind the world that he has effective means of killing people even if his long-range missiles don't seem to work very well. His estranged half-brother, who had no presence on the world stage, may well have been a simple demonstration piece--a way to put North Korea temporarily back into the spotlight.

"If that was the case, then why not simply disperse enough of the material to kill dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of people? Kim Jong-un probably has no scruples about doing so, but he is not stupid. He knows there are lines that, if crossed, would bring the wrath of many nations, including his ally China, down on him. So he rids himself of a disliked relative and raises the specter of chemical warfare without doing enough harm to bring about retribution.

"The Chemical Weapons Convention, which went into force in 1997, banned the use of chemical weapons and called on the world's nations who had stockpiles of such weapons to destroy them. A handful of U.N. member nations, including North Korea, have not signed the treaty, and even considering those who have, one has to question whether the 100% destruction they claim is factual.

"VX was not conceived of as an anti-personnel weapon, but its effectiveness as such has now been demonstrated, and the fact that neither of the alleged assassins nor anyone else at the airport was seriously affected makes it clear that safe handling is possible, if risky. Having seen the efficacy of a small dose on a selected target has surely put the idea of using it into a number of heads--not all of them necessarily terrorists.

"VX is not difficult to make in a well-equipped chemistry laboratory, especially if one is indifferent to the health of the technicians, as tyrants tend to be. In state-of-the-art labs with NIOSH Level A protection--such as those operated by a number of federal agencies--production would be a snap.

"Some time ago* I suggested that in Trump some tyrants might have 'met their match in stubbornness, hardheadedness and unreasoning assurance of being in the right.' I did not include Kim Jong-un in the list because the post was about the Middle East, but he certainly belongs on it.

"The Great Pretender has shown disregard for more political and social norms than I can name. His only interests are himself and his agenda. He has set aside treaties, agreements, conventions and other presidents' executive orders and sought to overthrow laws because they are not consistent with his vision of Trumpland. With his obsessive need to have his own way and to accomplish goals as expeditiously as possible, who's to say he might not look on VX as a convenient tool for doing away with evildoers? Might the thought of infiltrating a CIA agent with a small amount of VX into Bashar Assad's household already crossed his mind?

"Think about it."

*4/8/17

--Richard Brown