Kim Jong-nam: "It's fine... Let's not talk about politics"
Assassinated at the airport five years after Kim Jong-un came to power
Testimony has emerged that Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un, was encouraged to seek political asylum in either South Korea or the United States three months before his assassination on February 13, 2017.
(Photo by Yonhap News)
On the 25th, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported that Alex Fan, 73, the owner of 'Goryowon,' a Korean restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which Kim Jong-nam frequented, advised Kim Jong-nam to defect and seek asylum in the United States or South Korea. According to the newspaper, Kim Jong-nam replied, "It's fine. Let's not talk about politics anymore."
Fan said that he followed Kim Jong-nam as he was leaving the restaurant and told him, "I'm genuinely worried about you. I have friends at the U.S. and South Korean embassies who can help you." However, Fan recalled that Kim Jong-nam walked away without responding. In the interview where he shared this story, Fan said, "I wish I had urged him to seek asylum more strongly at the time." Fan also testified that Kim Jong-nam was gentle in character and spoke in a soft tone during his lifetime.
Kim Jong-nam was the eldest son of National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il and the half-brother of Kim Jong-un. Having spent most of his life abroad, Kim Jong-nam was assassinated by a hit squad dispatched from North Korea to Malaysia five years after Kim Jong-un came to power in 2012, following Kim Jong-il's death in December 2011. The moment of Kim Jong-nam's assassination was captured in full by airport closed-circuit (CC) TV and was broadcast worldwide.
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