DPRK man dies minutes after being swabbed with VX nerve agent: Malaysian official

KUALA LUMPUR - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) man died a painful death minutes after being swabbed with a high dosage of lethal VX nerve agent, Malaysia's Health Minister S. Subramaniam said Sunday.

"He died in the ambulance. He fainted in the clinic. I would say from the time of onsite (treatment), about 15 to 20 minutes," the minister told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

He said autopsy findings were very much in line with the VX nerve agent found by the Chemistry Department earlier.

"The doses were so high that it did it so fast and all over the body, so it affected the heart and lungs and affected everything," he said, adding the dosage in this case is more than the normal lethal volume of 10 milligram.

According to the minister, doctors at the beginning suspected the DPRK man, with a passport name of "Kim Chol," died from organophosphate poisoning, but found out it was "much much much more poisoning than the type we kill normal insects."

He said the full autopsy report will be given to the police while the next challenge for health authorities would be identification of the deceased.

The best option, said the minister, would still be to have the next-of-kin to do DNA profiling, but multiple methods also suffice but with different sensitivity, such as dental profiling.

"We could use dental profiling as well as comparing him to his pictures where we could identify him by the identification marks such as moles," he said.

The DPRK man was attacked on Feb 13 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2. After seeking help from the airport staff, he died en route to hospital.

The Malaysian police are holding three suspects in custody, an Indonesian woman, a Vietnamese woman and a DPRK man.

They still want to question seven others, including a second secretary of the DPRK embassy in Malaysia. Four of the seven are believed to have fled the country.