North Korea’s history of assassinations

The death of Kim Jong-nam, the exiled half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is the latest in a long list of assassinations and attempted killings blamed on agents of the reclusive state

1968: North Korean commandos mount raid to kill then South Korean president Park Chung-hee, but are halted within 100m of presidential Blue House

1974: North Korean sympathizer shoots at Park as he delivers speech during Independence Day ceremony. Bullets miss him but kill his wife

1983: Bomb attack by North Korean agents in Myanmar kills 21 people but misses visiting South Korean leader Chun Doo-hwan

1987: Mid-air bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 kills 115 people. One bomber – North Korean agent Kim Hyon-hui (above) – is later captured in Bahrain, but her male accomplice commits suicide

1996: South Korean official Choe Deok-geun killed in Vladivostok in alleged revenge attack for deaths of 25 North Korean submariners

1997: Lee Han-young – North Korean defector and cousin of Kim Jong-nam – shot and killed in Seoul by suspected North Korean assailants

2010: Two North Korean agents arrested in South over plot to kill high-profile defector Hwang Jang-yop

2013: Jang Sung-taek (left), uncle to Kim Jong-un and widely seen as North Korea’s second most powerful man, charged with treason and executed

Feb 13, 2017: Kim Jong-nam dies after apparent poison attack at Kuala Lumpur airport. South Korea blames killing on North Korean assassins


Source: Wire agencies Pictures: Associated Press, Newscom, Twitter © GRAPHIC NEWS