FILE - This May 4, 2001, file photo shows Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, in Narita, Japan. (Shizuo Kambayashi, File/Associated Press)SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean agencies said Tuesday they could not confirm a report that the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a U.S. intelligence source and had traveled to Malaysia to meet his CIA contact before being assassinated there in 2017. The Journal said Kim Jong Nam met on several occasions with CIA operatives, but also that many details of his relationship with the agency remain unclear. The U.S. and South Korea, too have blamed North Korea, but Malaysian officials never officially accused Pyongyang of involvement. Kim Jong Nam was the eldest son in the current generation of North Korea’s ruling family and could have been seen as a threat to Kim Jong Un’s rule.

Source: Washington Post June 11, 2019 07:17 UTC