Police: VX nerve agent used to kill Kim Jong Nam

Malaysian police name agent used to kill Kim Jong Nam,
VX is the most toxic nerve agent.
The chemical substance used to kill Kim Jong Nam was a VX nerve agent, an internationally-banned chemical weapon that can kill within minutes, according to a preliminary
report by the Chemistry Department of Malaysia.

Malaysian police said in a statement Friday that tests on Kim's eyes and face revealed the presence of the substance.
Nerve agents are the most toxic and fast-acting substance known in chemical warfare and VX is the most potent of all of them, according to the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, died on February 13 before he was scheduled to board a flight from Kuala
Lumpur to Macau.

Malaysian police claim two women wiped his face with some sort of liquid at the instruction of four North Koreans. He started to feel dizzy minutes later and died shortly after on his way to the
hospital.

North Korea rejects that version of events, saying that the women would be dead if they had put a lethal chemical on their hands. It vehemently
denies any involvement in Kim's death.

There are binary versions of chemical weapons, including VX, which aren't lethal until two
compounds are mixed, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW).

Binary systems are usually employed for the safebstorage of chemical weapons.



How it works

VX inhibits the operation of an enzyme that helps the body's nervous system function, causing paralysis and suffocation.

"VX is probably the state-of-the-art nerve agent".
It is probably the most lethal of all the nerve agents ever designed."

Symptoms can appear after a few seconds, andbeven small doses as little as 10 mg on the
skin can affect people. Larger exposure can lead to convulsions, paralysis and deadly respiratory failure.

VX is most dangerous when inhaled, rather than absorbed through the skin, according to Nial Wheate, a chemical weapons health expert at the
University of Sydney.

"It's not (meant as) a skin agent. It's a thing thatbyou aerosol through the air," he said.
The nerve agent is listed in the top tier of deadly substances in the Chemical Weapons Convention , which North Korea has not signed.