Kim Jong-nam: North Korea exile’s ‘careless’ use of Facebook could have helped killers track him down

Social media profile shares pseudonym used on passport found after airport ‘assasination’

A photo believed to show Kim Jong-nam, posted on Facebook in 2010

Kim Jong-nam may have been tracked down by alleged assassins because of his “careless” use of social media, an intelligence official has suggested.

The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died in suspicious circumstances after falling ill at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday.

Malaysian police said the man was carrying a passport in the name of “Kim Chol”, a pseudonym linked to the North Korean exile for several years.

A Facebook account under that name appears to carry photographs of Kim Jong-nam travelling around China, Europe and in Macau, where he lived after fleeing Pyongyang with his family.

The page’s authenticity could not be verified but it has been linked to Mr Kim in news reports dating back to 2012 and contains photographs dating back almost a decade as well as matching autobiographical details.

Sources told NK News the profile was real, including pictures of his pet dog and messages to friends around the world.

Cha Du-hyeogn, the former intelligence secretary to South Korea’s President, said Mr Kim’s choice to post photos showing his location showed a remarkable lack of concern over threats to his life.

“Open activities like these do not look like they are coming from a person who is constantly under the death threats,” he added.

“I think it is possible that Kim was careless, leading to his unsuspecting death.”


 A photo believed to show Kim Jong-nam in Shanghai, posted in Facebook in 2010

The Facebook page shows a man thought to be Kim Jong-nam posing alone in locations including Macau, Shanghai, Geneva and on a boat with a friend in Europe.

Known as something of a playboy, he was snapped outside casinos in Macau, one of the world’s largest gambling centres.

“Living Las Vegas in Asia,” said a status posted in 2010. “I miss Europe,” read another comment posted in 2013.

The last public activity on the account was in November 2015, when “Kim Chol” overlaid his Facebook photo of a squirrel with a French flag as a tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks.

An eclectic range of Facebook “likes” include a comedy page impersonating Kim Jong-un, Playboy magazine, Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Singapore, an American soldier who lived in North Korea, “Boo” the dog and several nightclubs.

The eldest son of North Korea’s former leader Kim Jong-il, he was educated at the International School of Geneva and Lycée Français Alexandre Dumas in Moscow.

A photo believed to show Kim Jong-nam in Geneva, posted on Facebook in 2010

He was considered to be in training as North Korea’s next supreme leader during the 1990s but fell out of favour with his father after being caught with a fake passport in Japan in 2001, claiming he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

The incident made global headlines, worsening Mr Kim’s stance in North Korea, where his birth was already considered shameful because his father and mother, actress Sung Hye Rim, were unmarried.

He went into exile and was known to be living in Macau from around 2003, but also had relatives including at least three children with three different women – two wives and one mistress – living in Beijing according to South Korea’s intelligence service.

He had been spotted at a hotel in Macau in 2010, then at Beijing International Airport in 2012, identifying himself when questioned by South Korean tourists, and in Singapore later that year.

After his father’s death, Mr Kim complained that his younger half-brother and the country’s new leader, was failing to treat him with respect and send him enough money, according to Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.

However, he refrained from openly criticising the North and kept a low profile after his uncle and former protector Jang Song-thaek, once considered the country’s second-most powerful individual, was executed in 2013.

Kim Jong-un has executed or purged a number of high-level government officials and had been attempting to kill his brother for five years, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

Kim Jong-nam sent a letter to the leader in April 2012 pleading for the lives of himself and his family.

“I hope you cancel the order for the punishment of me and my family,” the letter said.

“We have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and we know that the only way to escape is committing suicide.”

Mr Kim was waiting for a flight to Macau when he collapsed at Kuala Lumpur international airport on Monday.

He died on the way to the hospital, after telling medical workers at the airport that he had been sprayed with a chemical, although conflicting media reports have claimed a needle or other device was used to administer suspected poison.

Three suspects – two women and a man – have been arrested after being identified on CCTV footage that showed one of the suspects wearing a T-shirt with “LOL” written across the front.

There were claims two women carried out the suspected assassination before fleeing in a taxi, while the man detained is believed to be a boyfriend of one of the suspects.

Medical workers have completed an autopsy on Mr Kim, despite an objection from North Korea, but the results have not been released.