More questions than answers in death of North Korean royalty

In this May 4, 2001, photo, a man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, right, the eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, walks out of a police van to board a plane to Beijing at Narita international airport in Narita, northeast of Tokyo. Kim was assassinated at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, telling medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray a Malaysian official said Tuesday. (Kyodo News via AP) In this May 4, 2001, photo, a man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, right, the eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, walks out of a police van to board a plane to Beijing at Narita international airport in Narita, northeast of Tokyo. Kim was assassinated at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, telling medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray a Malaysian official said Tuesday. (Kyodo News via AP)

By Associated Press February 15, 2017 4 min read

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – It looks like a perfectly staged assassination, straight out of the pages of a spy novel: North Korean royalty Kim Jong Nam, the estranged, exiled half-brother of leader Kim Jong Un, falls ill at a Malaysian airport, complains of being sprayed with some sort of chemical, and drops dead.

But, as with many things about the alleged motives of cloistered North Korea, the unknowns currently far outweigh the certainties.

A look at what officials are trying to piece together as they work to reconstruct one of the most audacious, mysterious assassinations in recent Asian history:

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WHY NOW?