The United States has determined Pyongyang used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Malaysia in 2017 and has imposed sanctions in response, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.

The prohibitions appeared largely symbolic, such as sales to North Korea under the Arms Export Control Act and barring the export of national security-sensitive goods and technology to North Korea, which has no relations with the United States.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement the U.S. government made the formal determination about the use of VX on Feb. 22 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.

The additional sanctions on Pyongyang went into effect on March 5 after the finding was formally published in the Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. government, Nauert said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson determined North Korea had "used chemical weapons in violation of international law or lethal chemical weapons against its own nationals," the department said in the Federal Register.

Kim's estranged half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was killed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, are on trial on charges of murdering Kim by smearing his face with VX. </s> The United States has determined Pyongyang used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia in 2017 and has imposed sanctions in response, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

The prohibitions appeared largely symbolic, such as sales to North Korea under the Arms Export Control Act and barring the export of national security-sensitive goods and technology to North Korea, which has no relations with the United States.

State department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement the US government made the formal determination about the use of VX on Feb. 22 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.

The additional sanctions on Pyongyang went into effect on March 5 after the finding was formally published in the Federal Register, the official journal of the US government, Nauert said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson determined North Korea had “used chemical weapons in violation of international law or lethal chemical weapons against its own nationals,” the department said in the Federal Register.

Kim’s estranged half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, are on trial on charges of murdering Kim by smearing his face with VX. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has determined Pyongyang used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia in 2017 and has imposed sanctions in response, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.

The prohibitions appeared largely symbolic, such as sales to North Korea under the Arms Export Control Act and barring the export of national security-sensitive goods and technology to North Korea, which has no relations with the United States.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement the U.S. government made the formal determination about the use of VX on Feb. 22 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.

The additional sanctions on Pyongyang went into effect on March 5 after the finding was formally published in the Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. government, Nauert said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson determined North Korea had “used chemical weapons in violation of international law or lethal chemical weapons against its own nationals,” the department said in the Federal Register.

Kim’s estranged half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, are on trial on charges of murdering Kim by smearing his face with VX. </s> The State Department announced Tuesday North Korea used chemical weapons to kill Kim Jong Un’s half-brother.

The regime used the chemical agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia last year, the department said in a statement.

“The United States strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons to conduct an assassination,” the statement read. The department concluded its findings Friday.

North Korea’s use of chemical agents prompted the U.S. to slap new sanctions against Kim's regime under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991. Those sanctions went into effect Monday.

Three people arrested in murder of Kim Jong Un's half-brother

Two women face murder charges in the killing of Kim Jong Nam, who had traces of VX on his face, Malaysian officials said.

President Trump was confident North Korea would drop its nuclear weapons program.

“Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!” </s> The United States formally concluded Tuesday that North Korea murdered Kim Jong Un's half-brother with the banned VX nerve agent, blasting Pyongyang for deploying a chemical weapon in a packed international airport.

Kim Jong Nam died in February last year, shortly after two women sprayed his face with a liquid as he walked through Kuala Lumpur airport.

The brazen daylight assassination unleashed diplomatic shockwaves and widespread condemnation of North Korea.

The two women, an Indonesian and a Vietnamese national, are currently on trial in Malaysia where they are accused of using a nerve agent to murder Kim Jong Nam, who lived in exile in China and was seen as a potential rival to his younger half-brother.

The two women say they were recruited to take part in what they thought were prank TV shows but were instead tricked into becoming inadvertent assassins, in an elaborate plot by a group of North Korean agents who then fled country.

On Tuesday, Washington announced it had formally concluded that VX — an extremely powerful nerve agent — was used to conduct the slaying and that North Korea was to blame.

"The Government of North Korea used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, in the Kuala Lumpur airport," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

"This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean WMD program of any kind," she added.

The statement gave no details or evidence on how the U.S. had come to their conclusion.

The finding triggered another layer of U.S. economic sanctions against Pyongyang, just as South Korea reported that the regime is ready for talks to end a nuclear standoff.

Under U.S. law, when a country or leader violates its ban on chemical and biological weapons, an import ban is imposed on its products, but North Korea is already under severe U.S. and U.N. sanctions, and Tuesday's decision will have little impact.

Kim Jong Un's older half-brother had once been seen as their father Kim Jong Il's natural heir, and some reports had suggested that China might be grooming him to replace the younger man in the event of a crisis.

The ongoing trial in Malaysia heard testimony that Kim Jong Nam expressed fears for his life months before his death.

He spent much of his time in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau and it is not clear why he may have left the relative safety of China's protection to travel to Malaysia if he thought his life was at risk.

The State Department's conclusions on the use of VX nerve agent come as anti-terror police in Britain investigate a potential poisoning of a former Russian spy in the sleepy town of Salisbury.

Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain and later released in a spy swap, was found unconscious on a bench in the English town alongside his daughter. Both are in critical condition.

The case immediately drew comparisons to Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-spy who died of radioactive polonium poisoning in London in 2006. A British inquiry ruled in 2016 that Putin "probably approved" the killing. </s> WASHINGTON: The United States formally concluded Tuesday that North Korea murdered Kim Jong Un’s half-brother with the banned VX nerve agent, blasting Pyongyang for deploying a chemical weapon in a packed international airport. Kim Jong Nam died in February last year, shortly after two women sprayed his face with a liquid as he walked through Kuala Lumpur airport. The brazen daylight assassination unleashed diplomatic shockwaves and widespread condemnation of North Korea.

The two women, an Indonesian and a Vietnamese national, are currently on trial in Malaysia where they are accused of using a nerve agent to murder Kim Jong Nam, who lived in exile in China and was seen as a potential rival to his younger half-brother. The two women say they were recruited to take part in what they thought were prank TV shows but were instead tricked into becoming inadvertent assassins, in an elaborate plot by a group of North Korean agents who then fled the country.

On Tuesday, Washington announced it had formally concluded that VX – an extremely powerful nerve agent – was used to conduct the slaying and that North Korea was to blame.

“The Government of North Korea used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, in the Kuala Lumpur airport,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

“This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean WMD program of any kind,” she added.

The statement gave no details or evidence on how the US had come to their conclusion. The finding triggered another layer of US economic sanctions against Pyongyang, just as South Korea reported that the regime is ready for talks to end a nuclear standoff. Under US law, when a country or leader violates its ban on chemical and biological weapons, an import ban is imposed on its products, but North Korea is already under severe US and UN sanctions, and Tuesday’s decision will have little impact.

Kim Jong Un’s older half-brother had once been seen as their father Kim Jong Il’s natural heir, and some reports had suggested that China might be grooming him to replace the younger man in the event of a crisis. The ongoing trial in Malaysia heard testimony that Kim Jong Nam expressed fears for his life months before his death. He spent much of his time in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau and it is not clear why he may have left the relative safety of China’s protection to travel to Malaysia if he thought his life was at risk. </s> On Friday morning, Malaysian police confirmed that Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was assassinated with the VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. North Korea is thought to possess the world’s third largest chemical weapons stockpile after the United States and Russia, with one estimate noting that it may possess 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical warfare agents. To date, while VX had thought to be an objective for North Korea’s chemical weapons program, there had been no evidence that Pyongyang possessed the highly dangerous nerve agent.

Kim Jong-nam’s assassination, which took place on February 13, has been surrounded by intrigue and speculation, ranging from the extent to which the North Korean mission in Kuala Lumpur provided direct support to the motivations of the two female assassins involved. Malaysian authorities have held individuals at the North Korean embassy in the country liable for involvement in the attack and the use of VX adds to the growing list of evidence pointing to the fact that this was a state-sanctioned assassination, despite ongoing North Korean denials.

North Korea’s use of VX is especially audacious given that it occurred at a busy international airport. VX is so dangerous that the median lethal dose is estimated at 10 mg. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that “people can be exposed through skin contact, eye contact, or inhalation.” The agent can kill within minutes of making contact with human skin. In Kim Jong-nam’s case, Malaysian authorities noted that the agent was detected in his eyes; chemical nerve agents generally work faster once they’ve made contact with mucous membranes such as those found in the human eye.

Remarkably, no reports have emerged to date of any individuals suffering from the VX use at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13. Both assassins survived to end up in Malaysian custody and Malaysia has not specifically announced if any medical or airport staff who handled Kim Jong-nam’s body fell ill or demonstrated any signs of having come into contact with a deadly nerve agent.

Indeed, one of the remaining mysteries in this case now, with the confirmation of VX use, is how neither of the assassins nor any bystanders appear to have been affected. One possibility — suggested by the use of multiple assassins instead of one — is that a VX binary was used, but this has not been confirmed by Malaysian authorities. In a two-stage binary VX reaction, two otherwise safe precursor compounds synthesize the dangerous nerve agent. Accounts of the Kim Jong-nam assassination — including CCTV footage — have confirmed at least two women approached Kim, one of whom put him in a two-handed chokehold. (The U.S. Army first developed binary nerve agents to enable safer handling and storage.)

North Korea is not party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, but has signed the Geneva Protocol restricting the use of chemical agents in war. According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, “at maximum capacity, North Korea is estimated to be capable of producing up to 12,000 tons of CW.” For wartime use, South Korea seemingly expects delivery of chemical or biological agents by conventional artillery shells. In 2010, after the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, fearing chemical use in the future, South Korea handed out gas masks to the island’s residents.

It’s unclear if the Kim Jong-nam assassination was meant to serve the secondary purpose of signaling to the world that North Korea definitively possesses the capability to synthesize VX. Immediately after Kim Jong-nam’s death, North Korea protested Malaysia’s intention to proceed with an autopsy and demanded that the body be transferred to its diplomatic mission. Melissa Hanham, an arms control expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told The Diplomat that North Korea’s denials in the press and suspected attempt to even break into the morgue where Kim Jong-nam’s body also add confusion to the situation.

The choice of VX for the assassination, however, isn’t unprecedented. Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo used the nerve agent for the 1995 assassination of Tadahito Hamaguchi in Osaka, with VX emerging in the autopsy. Aum Shinrikyo also carried out an attack on the Tokyo subway with sarin, another nerve agent, in 1995, killing 12 and injuring more than 4,000. North Korea has used poison-laced needle attacks in assassination attempts in the past; South Korean authorities reported three such incidents against South Korean activists helping North Korea defectors as recently as 2011.

For the moment, the Malaysian investigation into the Kim Jong-nam assassination continues, but the confirmation of VX use by North Korea, while troubling, only raises more questions.

Update: Malaysian authorities have confirmed to Reuters that one of the assassins showed effects of VX exposure, including vomiting. </s> WASHINGTON – The United States formally concluded Tuesday that North Korea murdered Kim Jong Un’s half-brother with the banned VX nerve agent, blasting Pyongyang for deploying a chemical weapon in a packed international airport.

Kim Jong Nam died in February last year, shortly after two women sprayed his face with a liquid as he walked through Kuala Lumpur airport.

The brazen daylight assassination unleashed diplomatic shockwaves and widespread condemnation of North Korea.

The two women, an Indonesian and a Vietnamese national, are currently on trial in Malaysia where they are accused of using a nerve agent to murder Kim Jong Nam, who lived in exile in China and was seen as a potential rival to his younger half-brother.

The two women say they were recruited to take part in what they thought were prank TV shows but were instead tricked into becoming inadvertent assassins, in an elaborate plot by a group of North Korean agents who then fled country.

On Tuesday, Washington announced it had formally concluded that VX — an extremely powerful nerve agent — was used to conduct the slaying and that North Korea was to blame.

“The Government of North Korea used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, in the Kuala Lumpur airport,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

“This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean WMD program of any kind,” she added.

The statement gave no details or evidence on how the US had come to their conclusion.

The finding triggered another layer of US economic sanctions against Pyongyang, just as South Korea reported that the regime is ready for talks to end a nuclear standoff.

Under US law, when a country or leader violates its ban on chemical and biological weapons, an import ban is imposed on its products, but North Korea is already under severe US and UN sanctions, and Tuesday’s decision will have little impact.

Kim Jong Un’s older half-brother had once been seen as their father Kim Jong Il’s natural heir, and some reports had suggested that China might be grooming him to replace the younger man in the event of a crisis.

The ongoing trial in Malaysia heard testimony that Kim Jong Nam expressed fears for his life months before his death.

He spent much of his time in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau and it is not clear why he may have left the relative safety of China’s protection to travel to Malaysia if he thought his life was at risk.

The State Department’s conclusions on the use of VX nerve agent come as anti-terror police in Britain investigate a potential poisoning of a former Russian spy in the sleepy town of Salisbury.

Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain and later released in a spy swap, was found unconscious on a bench in the English town alongside his daughter. Both are in critical condition.

The case immediately drew comparisons to Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-spy who died of radioactive polonium poisoning in London in 2006. A British inquiry ruled in 2016 that Putin “probably approved” the killing. </s> North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is seen during the inspection of a potato flour factory in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. (Reuters)

North Korea used a chemical warfare agent to assassinate the half-brother of its leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia last year, the US has concluded and imposed new sanctions against the reclusive nation to stop its unlawful activities.

The US' claim came just hours after North Korea signalled it was willing to give up its nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, died after two women approached him and smeared a deadly nerve agent on his face in Malaysia on February 13 last year.

The US determined on February 22 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act) that the Government of North Korea used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, in the Kuala Lumpur airport, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

VX is an extremely toxic synthetic chemical compound. VX fatalities occur with exposure to tens of milligram quantities via inhalation or absorption through skin. On such exposure, it severely disrupts the body's signalling between the nervous and muscular systems, leading to a prolonged neuromuscular blockade, flaccid paralysis of all the muscles in the body including the diaphragm, and death by asphyxiation.

The US imposed new sanctions on North Korea as part of its finding, the State Department said.

These sanctions are in addition to existing US comprehensive sanctions against targeting unlawful North Korean activities.

The new sanctions took effect upon the publication of US' finding about the murder of Kim Jong Nam in the Federal Register on Monday, Nauert said.

Under the US law, when a country or leader violates its ban on chemical and biological weapons, an import ban is imposed on its products. North Korea is already under severe US and UN sanctions and so yesterday's decision will have little impact on the country.

"The US strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons to conduct an assassination. This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean WMD program of any kind," Nauert said.

The new findings came as US President Donald Trump said hat he believed that North Korea's offer to hold denuclearisation talks was "sincere."

North Korea has offered to freeze its nuclear and missile programmes if the US begins direct talks on an agreement that would eventually see a nuclear free Korean peninsula.

But relations between the US and North Korea remain fragile. The North Korean regime has denied it was involved in Kim Jong-nam’s death and the new findings could disrupt diplomatic efforts. </s> VX nerve agent used in murder of Kim Jong-nam, Malaysia says

A preliminary report shows the murder of Kim Jong-nam was carried out with a highly toxic chemical known as VX nerve agent, Malaysian police say.

The police said swabs were taken from the eye and the face of a North Korean national by the Chemistry Department of Malaysia.

A statement from the inspector general of police said a preliminary analysis from the department identified the substance as VX nerve agent, or S-2 Diisoprophylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate, a chemical classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

"Other exhibits are under analysis," Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in the statement.

Mr Khalid said earlier that a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman wiped a liquid on Kim's face.

They later washed their hands and fled the scene.

Airport camera footage released on Monday by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV shows the moment the women appeared to assault Kim, who is later seen asking airport officials for medical help. He died on the way to hospital.

VX is tasteless and odourless, and is outlawed under the Chemical Weapons Convention, except for "research, medical or pharmaceutical purposes".

It can be manufactured as a liquid, cream or aerosol. Absorbed in large doses, it is fatal after 15 minutes, according to the US Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Centre, making it the most toxic known nerve agent in the world.

Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, died on February 13 after two women put a substance on his face while he was checking in at Kuala Lumpur International Airport while he was preparing to board a flight to Macau.

Police chief Khalid said help had been sought from Interpol to issue an alert for the four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the same day Kim was killed.

It was unclear what Interpol could do, as the four are believed to have returned to Pyongyang and North Korea is not a member of Interpol.

Mr Khalid said there were no plans to send officers to Macau to collect a DNA sample from Kim's family.

Kim had a home in Macau and was on his way there when he was killed.

North Korea said Malaysia's investigation into the death of one of its nationals was full of "holes and contradictions" amid speculation its agents masterminded the assassination.

Malaysian police have not directly pinpointed North Korea as being behind the death of Kim.

The Korean Jurists Committee said in a statement on state-run news agency KCNA that the Malaysian investigation lacked fairness and has been influenced by the South Korean government, which blames Pyongyang for the death.

The North has not acknowledged that the dead man is Kim.

Thursday's statement described the man only as a North Korean citizen bearing a diplomatic passport.
The United States accuses North Korea of using VX to kill Kim Jong-nam, and imposes apparently symbolic sanctions against North Korea.