On February 13, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia by two female DPRK agents. This seems to be an action to eliminate a threat to Kim Jong-un’s power. The autopsy on Kim Jong-nam showed VX nerve agent in his body. The discovery of VX nerve agent was unsettling for everyone around the world.

Kim Jong-nam is Kim Jong-un’s elder half-brother and had a DPRK’s supreme leader lecture when he was young. However, through his experiences studying abroad, he felt that dictatorship in a communist country is not fair and acceptable for the people, so he left his country. After then he hid his ID, wandered Macao and Beijing. Kim Jong-nam tried to go to Macao via Malaysia, and he was murdered in Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

On February 25, the Malaysian Sanitation Authority reported that Kim Jong-nam’s main cause for death was VX nerve agent. VX is categorized as a chemical weapon by the Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC). It is also categorized as banned weapon of mass destruction by the UN. It is a very strong toxic chemical that attacks the central nervous system. If VX is absorbed through the skin, it is at least 100 times stronger than sarin gas. If it is inhaled, it is two times stronger than sarin gas.

The DPRK is threatening the safety and peace of the international community by using this internationally banned chemical weapon. On March 7, Choi Jong-mun, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, insisted the international community bring this matter to Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) conference held in The Hague. Governments must cooperate to pressure and penalize the DPRK for this action to prevent similar things from happening again. For global safety, world leaders have to find a way to stop the DPRK’s actions that might lead to a global apocalypse.