Published on Vox.com’s website when I interned with their Foreign team in Spring 2017. The explainer article was shared on Apple News and reached more than 80,000 people.
Ten days after Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was killed at a Malaysian airport, we still don’t know who murdered him — or why.
Malaysian investigators are pointing fingers at North Korea and at Kim Jong Un himself for organizing the murder, which was reportedly carried out by two women recruited as assassins who attacked Kim Jong Nam with a fast-acting poison. The case took an even more ominous turn Friday when Malaysian police said the assassins killed Kim by rubbing his face with a lethal nerve agent, VX, that is formally classified as a chemical weapon.
North Korea has denied involvement and said responsibility for Kim’s death lies with Malaysia because he died there. South Korea’s acting president called the killing “an intolerable crime against humanity and terrorist act.”
The public killing has become a real-life international crime drama and another example of North Korea’s bizarre and unpredictable behavior. Kim’s death has already prompted diplomatic and political shifts in Asia, and there could be bigger changes when the culprit is finally identified.
But first, here’s what we know about Kim Jong Nam’s death.
Lindsay Maizland 
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