Kim Jong Un’s Half-Brother Kim Jong Nam Was CIA Informant: Report

Kim Jong Un’s slain half-brother was reportedly an informant for the Central Intelligence Agency and met with U.S. officials a number of times.

The Wall Street Journal reports Kim Jong Nam, who mainly lived outside North Korea, traveled to Malaysia in February 2017 to meet with his CIA contact—reportedly a “Korean-American” man who Malaysian officials suspected to be a U.S. officer.

It was in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport that Kim Jong Nam was killed after two women smeared his face with a nerve agent.

The U.S. and South Korea blamed his murder on North Korea, which denied having anything to do with it.

Sources also told the Journal that Kim Jong Nam was likely a source of intelligence for China’s security services, among others.

The CIA reportedly declined to comment, and Chinese officials did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.

VX nerve agent

A Vietnamese woman tried in the case of Kim’s death was released from a Malaysian prison and returned to her native country earlier this month.

Doan Thi Huong, the last suspect who'd been in custody after being charged in the death of Kim Jong Nam with VX nerve agent, said at the airport that “the case has come to a complete end.”

She expressed her gratitude “to everyone who prayed for me” in a video taken by her lawyer in the plane just before it took off to Hanoi.

The 30-year-old and her co-defendant, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, were charged with colluding with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam.

The two women – who have said they thought they were taking part in a harmless prank for a TV show – smeared the nerve agent on his face at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13, 2017.

They were arrested days later and charged with murder.

➤ FIND related content here

In March, the Malaysian attorney general stunningly dropped the murder charge against Aisyah, following high-level lobbying from Jakarta.

Huong sought to be acquitted after her co-defendant was freed, but prosecutors rejected her request.

Huong pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing injuring last month after prosecutors dropped the murder charge against her.

She was sentenced to 40 months in prison from the day of her arrest and was released early for good behavior.

The four North Koreans left Malaysia the day Kim was killed.

Sources: The Daily Beast, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2019

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Oklahoma executes James Pavatt

Pavatt claimed innocence in the slaying of an Oklahoma City advertising executive for insurance money. His co-defendant and former lover Brenda Andrew is also on death row. James Pavatt made no final statement before being executed Thursday for killing his lover’s estranged husband nearly 25 years ago. Pavatt merely shook his head when asked by Oklahoma Department of Corrections Chief of Operations Jason Sparks if he had any last words. Pavatt appeared to share a quick word with Michael Scott, his spiritual advisor, after microphones inside the death chamber had been cut off.

Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt scheduled to be executed Thursday

James Pavatt is scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the 2001 killing of an Oklahoma City man. OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt is set to be executed for the 2001 murder of advertising executive Rob Andrew. His execution is scheduled for Nov. 12, 2026. In 2004, Pavatt and his lover/co-conspirator, Brenda Andrew, were sentenced to death for planning the killing of her estranged husband in an attempt to claim his $800,000 life insurance policy. Brenda is the only woman on Oklahoma’s death row.

Judge allows Tennessee death row inmates to include botched executions in lawsuit

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two failed executions in Tennessee are now at the center of a growing legal battle over the state’s lethal injection protocol after a judge ruled in favor of death row inmates Friday. A Davidson County judge ruled death row inmates can expand their lawsuit to include new allegations stemming from the botched executions of Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike. The original lawsuit, filed in March 2025, argues Tennessee’s death penalty protocol violates the constitutional rights of death row inmates with complex medical conditions. More than one year later, the state then failed to execute two inmates: Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike.

Two men set to be executed in Texas and Oklahoma today

The U.S. was preparing to carry out two executions on Thursday, one in Oklahoma and one in Texas. In Texas, the condemned man is John Allen Rubio, 46, who is set to be put to death at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of beheading three young children he was raising in a 2003 killing that rattled a community along the U.S.-Mexico border. The other man facing execution is James Pavatt, 73, who is set to die by lethal injection at Oklahoma's state penitentiary in McAlester.

Texas executes John Rubio

Texas man who killed 3 children is put to death, hours after an Oklahoma execution James Pavatt was put to death in Oklahoma for Rob Andrew’s killing. In Texas, John Allen Rubio was executed for the deaths of Julissa Quesada, John E. Rubio, and Mary Jane Rubio. A Texas man convicted of fatally stabbing and beheading 3 young children in a squalid, windowless apartment in 2003 was executed Thursday evening, hours after Oklahoma put another man to death.

Why Many Americans Think Christa Pike Should Undergo a Second Execution Attempt

On October 20, Reuters released the results of a survey showing that 33% of the American public want Tennessee to try again to put Christa Pike to death. Another 26% are undecided. That means 59% of the public would support or be open to such a possibility. I want to suggest a reason why. Second execution attempts are rare in this country and, as a result, the public knows little if anything about them. That may help explain why so many would give Tennessee another chance to kill Christa Pike.

Iran executes three more January protesters accused of spying for Israel, US

In a statement, the judiciary said that “the death sentences of Hassan Deoband, Hamid Kazemi, and Reza Zangana were carried out on charges of ‘participating in operational action for the infamous Zionist regime and the United States and hostile groups.’” ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Sunday executed three more protesters over their involvement in the nationwide demonstrations in January, the judiciary announced, accusing them of spying for the United States and Israel and destroying infrastructure.

Alabama executes Michael Shannon Taylor

Alabama executes man convicted of 1991 double murder The state of Alabama carried out the execution of 54-year-old Michael Shannon Taylor Thursday night for the 1991 murders of an elderly Etowah County couple, 35 years and 1 day after the crime. Taylor, convicted in 1993 on 3 counts of capital murder, was sentenced to death unanimously by a jury for killing 83-year-old Ivan Ernest Moore and 79-year-old Lucille Moore inside their Gadsden home during a robbery. Taylor was 19 at the time.

Iran | 10 executed in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Karaj

Four prisoners, including an Afghan national, were executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. All four had been sentenced to death under Iran’s qisas (retributive justice) laws on murder charges. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, one of the executed prisoners was identified as Gol Agha Eskandari, an Afghan national. Eskandari had been convicted of murder following a dispute between neighbors in the Khorasan Square area of Tehran in July 2024 and subsequently sentenced to death.

Florida executes Jesse Guardado

Man convicted of 2004 killing is put to death in Florida’s 19th execution this year, tying a record Florida carried out a record-tying 19th execution of the year in an unusual instance of 3 states administering the death penalty on the same day. Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at a state prison in Starke. He had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80, and other valuables to buy drugs. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog