SEOUL, FEeb 15 — The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who has been murdered in Malaysia, pleaded for his life to be spared after a failed assassination bid in 2012, lawmakers briefed by Seoul’s spy chief said today. 

Kim Jong-nam died after reportedly being attacked by two women believed to be North Korean agents at a Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday.

Jong-nam, the eldest son of the late former leader Kim Jong-il, was once seen as heir apparent but fell out of favour following an embarrassing botched bid in 2001 to enter Japan on a forged passport and visit Disneyland. 

He has since lived in virtual exile, mainly in the Chinese territory of Macau, while Jong-un took over the isolated, nuclear-armed state after the death of his father in December 2011.

The North in 2012 tried to assassinate Jong-nam — known to be a supporter of reform in Pyongyang — Seoul lawmakers said following a closed-door briefing by the chief of the National Intelligence Service, Lee Byung-Ho. 

“According to (Lee)... there was one (assassination) bid in 2012, and Jong-nam in April 2012 sent a letter to Jong-un saying ‘Please spare me and my family’,” Kim Byung-kee, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters. 

“It also said ‘We have nowhere to go... we know that the only way to escape is suicide’,” he said, adding Jong-nam had little political support at home and posed little threat to Jong-un.   

Jong-nam’s family — his former and current wives and three children — are currently living in Beijing and Macau, said another committee member, Lee Cheol-woo. 

“They are under the protection by the Chinese authorities,” he said, adding Jong-nam had entered Malaysia on February 6, a week before his death. 

Jong-nam’s murder is the highest-profile death under the Kim Jong-un’s regime since the execution of the leader’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in December 2013. 

Jang, known to be close to China and an advocate of economic reform in the North, was charged with treason. 

Jong-nam, believed to have ties with Beijing’s elite, was a relatively outspoken figure, publicly criticising Pyongyang’s political system.

The 45-year-old said he “personally opposed” the hereditary power transfer in his own family, during an interview with Japan’s Asahi TV in 2010. 

One of his sons — Han-sol — also described his uncle, Jong-un, as a “dictator” in a rare interview with a Finnish TV station in 2012 while he was studying in Europe. — AFP