Staff Correspondent:Malaysian police today said a preliminary report showed the killing of Kim Jong Nam was carried out with a highly toxic chemical known as VX nerve agent.
Experts said that VX, the chemical used in the airport murder Kim Jong Nam, is one of the deadliest chemical weapons created by man. Just 10 milligrams of the nerve agent or a single drop enough to kill in minutes.
With the texture and feel of engine oil, VX was first produced in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. It can cause convulsions, loss of consciousness, paralysis and respiratory failure in minutes.
Its only known use is as a chemical warfare agent: VX is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
"You can think of VX as being a pesticide on steroids, this is an exceptional toxic substance. Roughly 1/100th of a gram, a third of a drop, on someone�s skin, will kill them,� said Bruce Bennet, defense researcher at California-based RAND Corporation.
VX was found on the body of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong UN, and they are investigating how the chemical entered the country, police said.
VX and other nerve agents were believed to have been used in chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. In 2015, traces of VX and sarin - another nerve agent - were found at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog.