The murder of Kim Jong-nam — the estranged eldest brother of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un — in Kuala Lumpur International Airport should come as no surprise to those familiar with the violent ways of the Kim regime. CCTV footage shows two women — believed to have been using poison — wiping a cloth on Jong-nam. The two were allegedly instigated to assassinate the elder Kim by DPRK agents acting under orders from Jong-un.

Such violence shows a blatant disregard for acceptable international conduct. Just as the Kim regime expects other states to respect the sovereignty of North Korean soil, so too should the former refrain from employing violence overseas. Kim Jong-un should be strictly reminded that North Korean overseas activities must conform to established international ethical norms.

Kim Jong-nam’s murder is not the first time that Pyongyang has ordered killings overseas. The bloody trail of state-directed terrorism began with North Korea’s first Supreme Leader and Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung. In 1968 he sent a team of DPRK special forces commandos to infiltrate the Demilitarised Zone separating North and South Korea in order to attack Cheong Wa Dae, the official residence of the South Korean President also known as the Blue House, and kill then president Park Chung-hee.

… Liang Tuang Nah is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.