Inspired by a real case

The murder of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur airport

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2017

This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.

On the morning of February 13, 2017, Kim Jong-nam, 45, the eldest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was waiting for a flight to Macau at the low-cost terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He had lived abroad for years and was traveling on a passport in the name of “Kim Chol”. In the departure hall, two young women approached him and smeared a liquid on his face. He asked for help at a counter, was taken to the airport infirmary and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Malaysian police announced that the cause of death was the nerve agent VX, classified as a chemical weapon. The terminal cameras showed the attack, and forensics found traces of the poison on the clothes of the two women, one Indonesian and one Vietnamese. They said they thought they were filming pranks for a hidden camera show: men who introduced themselves as producers had been paying them for weeks to rub oil or lotion on the faces of strangers in malls and hotels. Four North Koreans named by the prosecution as the organizers left Malaysia the same morning and were never tried.

Sources

In the game

Hidden Camera

Kuala Lumpur airport, low-cost terminal, Monday, 9:40 am. At 9:00, in the check-in hall, a young woman covered the eyes of a man in a blue coat from behind and rubbed something on his face.

Both women were charged with murder, a crime that at the time carried a mandatory death penalty in the country. In March 2019, prosecutors suddenly dropped the charge against the Indonesian woman, who was released without a formal acquittal. The Vietnamese woman agreed to plead guilty to a lesser offense, causing hurt by dangerous means, and was freed in May of the same year. Officials in South Korea and the United States blamed the North Korean government, which has always denied it.

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