The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly met with an American intelligence agent in the days before he was brazenly assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport last year.
The Telegraph reported that during the trial of two women who applied the deadly nerve agent VX to Kim Jong Nam's face, the court was told that he traveled to the island of Langkawi shortly before his death and met with an American agent on Feb. 9, 2017. It was also reported that a USB memory stick was inserted into Kim's laptop several times that day.
Kim was killed four days later by two women who, according to Reuters, were asked to spread an unknown substance on his face for what they thought was a TV prank.
The Telegraph noted that Kim had $138,000 in cash in his backpack at the time of the attack.
"We know that Mr. Kim has in the past spoken with South Korean intelligence officials and that he was under Chinese protection while he was in China and Macau, so it should not be a surprise that he was also talking to the Americans," professor Toshimitsu Shigemura of Tokyo's Waseda University told The Telegraph.
The identity of the American agent has not been determined.
The North Korean government is suspected of being behind the assassination.