Kim Jong-un wanted assassination of half-brother Kim Jong Nam to be 'gruesome', expert says

'Pyongyang wanted to horrify the rest of the world' with brother's murder, says North Korea expert

Kim Jong-un's estranged half brother died at Kuala Lumpur airport after he collapsed while waiting to board a flight (AP)

The assassination of Kim Jong-un’s brother, Kim Jong-nam, was a ritual killing intended to strike fear into the international community, according to one North Korea expert.

The estranged half-brother of the dictator was murdered in Malaysia in February when two women allegedly rubbed a toxic nerve agent on his face. He died within 20 minutes.

Throughout the assassination his attackers did not attempt to hide their faces, which many saw as a sign of incompetence.

But Korea University Professor Nam Sung-wook told GQ the murder was purposefully brazen: “Pyongyang wanted to send a worldwide message by murdering Kim Jong-nam in this gruesome, public way.

“Pyongyang wanted to horrify the rest of the world by releasing a chemical weapon at an airport.

“[Mr Kim] wants to reign a long time and negotiate as a superpower. The only way to do that is to keep the world in fear of his weapons. He has a grand design, and this is part of it."

One Vietnamese woman and one Indonesian woman have been charged with murder and are currently on death row.

North Korea has rejected the autopsy findings and denies any involvement in the murder.

The report comes as relations between the US and the isolated state remain incredibly fraught.

On Monday, North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho described Donald Trump’s latest comments as a “a declaration of war.”

Mr Ri was responding to a tweet in which the US President said the Foreign Minister “wouldn’t be around much longer”.

Leaving the UN on Monday, Mr Ri said that following the latest tweet his country now had “every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country”.