The South Korean government says it is astounded by the announcement from Malaysian police that a banned lethal chemical was used in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam.
 
A Foreign Ministry official said Friday that the Malaysian police revealed that the VX nerve agent was the cause of Kim's death, noting the substance is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention(CWC). The official said that South Korea reaffirms the stance of the UN and the global community that the use of chemical weapons is banned under any circumstance.
 
The official said that Seoul will sternly respond to this latest incident in violation of the CWC and related international regulations. As a first step, the government plans to raise the topic of the North's use of chemical agent in Kim's murder at a meeting of top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan scheduled for Monday in Washington. The government will also bring the issue to other multilateral diplomatic talks in Geneva and elsewhere. 
 
Kim Jong-nam, the elder half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13th.