A Japanese religious cult that carried out a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways in 1995 also experimented with the VX nerve agent suspected in the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother in Malaysia.
Months before killing about a dozen commuters and severely injuring dozens far more in Tokyo with sarin, a further kind of nerve gas, in March 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo cult attempted VX on at least three victims, killing a single whom cult members believed was a police informant.
In their trial, cult members mentioned they practiced working with syringes to spray the deadly chemical on people’s necks as they pretended to be out jogging. The suspected police informant spent 10 days in a coma prior to dying.
One particular of the individuals attacked with VX by the cult, Hiroyuki Nagaoka, told Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Friday that news of Kim Jong Nam’s murder reminded him of his own encounter.
He was walking on the sidewalk in his neighborhood in Tokyo in January 1995 when a member of the cult sprayed the nerve agent on the back of his neck. Most of it was blocked by his jacket collar.
“I had no thought what happened at that time,” he stated. He was attacked due to the fact he was a vocal opponent of the cult.
He finished walking residence but about half an hour later realized every little thing seemed to be oddly dark — an impact of the toxin causing his pupils to shrink. He started feeling hot inside and, sweating profusely, took off his garments.
His wife later told him that he got down on all fours like an animal, twisting and scratching his neck and chest, ahead of rolling onto his back in discomfort and losing consciousness.
He was rushed to a hospital for emergency therapy, and was unconscious for several days.
“I was saved by the collar of the jacket I was wearing,” he told NHK following officials in Malaysia said they suspected VX in the Kuala Lumpur killing.
According to court documents, two trained chemists who had joined the cult developed VX in a customized lab in the summer of 1994. They initially wanted to create 1 kilogram (2.two pounds) but succeeded in making only about 70 grams (2.five ounces).
They had an antidote but it really is not clear from the court documents if any of the cultists got sick from VX exposure.
More than 20 years immediately after the attack, Nagaoka still has numbness on the suitable side of his body and makes use of an oxygen tube inserted in his nostrils to help his breathing.
Nagaoka stated when he saw Kim Jong Nam in an airport surveillance video walking unassisted for a whilst but gradually seeming to slow down, he believed it have to be VX.
He also stated Kim may have been Youwin sweating heavily like he did, citing wet spots on Kim’s shirt when he was shown slumped in a chair.
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Connected Press writer Eric Talmadge contributed to this report.
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