Cops release grainy images of ‘four North Korean operatives’ after Kim Jong-nam ‘hit squad’ murder
COPS have released grainy images of four suspected North Korean operatives being sought after the murder of Kim Jong-un's playboy brother.
The four are reportedly suspected of orchestrating the killing of Kim Jong-nam from a close distance and are being sought by Malaysian police.
It's been claimed they watched on as suspected female hitmen felled the outspoken outcast, who had spoken out against his family's regime.
Today a shocking image of Kim Jong-un's estranged half-brother has emerged with claims it was taken after the playboy was fatally sprayed with poison.
In the distressing image Kim Jong-nam appears to be slumped in a chair with his eyes closed, having begged airport authorities for help after the assassination hit.
Kim Jong-nam had staggered around 15m to a service counter for help after he was targeted by a hit squad in a five-second attack at Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia on Monday.
While he was rushed to hospital, he was unable to be saved.
Authorities are now looking into just how the assassination of the man once tipped to be the next leader of North Korea unfolded, having arrested four people, including a North Korean man, over the plot.
Another four people are wanted for questioning over the assassination
Three people, including Siti Aisyah, 25, from Indonesia, and her Malaysian boyfriend have also been arrested over the poison plot.
CCTV suggests a cross-dressing killer may have held Jong-nam from behind before he was sprayed with either ricin or deadly puffer fish toxins, according to the .
Another woman, who was captured on CCTV wearing a ‘LOL’ top, is understood to have told police she thought she was “playing a prank”.
Experts have previously said that the playboy's use of Facebook could have led him to be tracked down.
There is speculation Jong-nam was targeted under the orders of his younger brother, Kim Jong-un, after he discovered his plans to defect.
South Korean newspaper, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, has claimed Kim Jong-nam was planning to defect at the time of his death.
The paper's anonymous source also suggested he had also made unsuccessful bids to defect to South Korea, the US and Europe in 2012.
According to a book called My Father, Kim Jong Il, and Me by Japanese journalist Yoji Gomi, Kim Jong-Nam reportedly called the current regime "a joke to the outside world".
He added: ";Without reforms, North Korea will collapse, and when such changes take place, the regime will collapse."
He is also quoted as saying: "My father was keeping highly secret the fact that he was living with my mother who was married, a famous movie actress, so I couldn't get out of the house or make friends.
"That solitude from childhood may have made me what I am now, preferring freedom."
Jong-Nam is known to have been a computer enthusiast, a fluent Japanese speaker and a student in both Russia and Switzerland. He lived in the capital Pyongyang after finishing his studies and oversaw North Korea's information technology policy.
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