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AS MALAYSIAN TOXICOLOGISTS reveal that the banned nerve agent VX was used in the airport assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, here are some key questions and answers about the deadly weapon of mass destruction.
Code-named by the US scientists who mass produced it, VX is an organophosphate compound and one of the deadliest chemical agents ever manufactured.
Stockpiled by the US in huge quantities during the Cold War, VX is perhaps 10 times as powerful as the Sarin toxin.
Odourless and clear when pure, it has the appearance of motor oil and is stable enough to be transported. It is also hard to detect, an advantage for a would-be assassin.
Downsides are that it lingers, potentially contaminating areas for long periods of time.
“It can kill an adult weighing 70 kilogrammes with just five milligrammes on the skin,” said Yosuke Yamasato, former principal of the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force Chemical School.
It’s unbelievable that the executors of the crime used it with their bare hands – they must have not known the material was VX.
It strikes the nervous system fast. A high dose can kill in minutes when inhaled, as the blood vessels in the lungs rapidly spread the compound into the bloodstream and vital organs.
Nerve agents over-stimulate glands and muscles, leading them to quickly fatigue and become unable to sustain breathing.
Symptoms depend on dosage and whether it is inhaled or introduced through the skin — the slower form of poisoning.
Exposure to low doses is survivable.
But more serious contamination is fast-acting and often gruesome. People exposed to the toxin may become short of breath and nauseous in minutes, or at a higher dose experience seizures, heart failure and a total shut down of the respiratory system.
There are antidotes but treatment must be immediate. US soldiers carried kits to inject themselves with antidote during the first Iraq War.
The compound was first created in a British laboratory in the early 1950s. But American scientists honed its potency during the Cold War arms race with the Soviet Union.
Tens of thousands of tonnes of VX were churned out at Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana – a stockpile that was finally destroyed in the late 1980s as the Cold War ended.
Accidental leaks have been reported in the US and Japan. It has been deployed as a war weapon infrequently but with devastating effect.
Residues found on site suggest Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may have used VX among a cocktail of chemical weapons he rained down on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 killing at least 5,000 people.
In 1994 VX was used by Japan’s Aum cult to murder an office worker in Osaka, and in the attempted murder of two other people.
VX is listed a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
Under the international Chemical Weapons Convention 1997, countries are allowed limited stockpiles for research purposes only but must declare them and are obliged to progressively destroy their supplies.
“North Korea is not a signatory to CWC, so it’s no surprise if it possesses VX,” Satoshi Numazawa, professor of toxicology at Showa University, told AFP.
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Yeah like the Americans destroyed their stockpile, does anyone really belive that?
@Jimmyjoe Wallace:
They haven’t, at least not all of it. The US still has over 500 tonnes of chemical weapons that are scheduled to be destroyed in the coming years.
The US and Russia came to an agreement regarding the destruction of Cold War era chemical weapons and both countries have destroyed over 90% of their stockpiles. If either country wasn’t fulfilling it’s promises regarding the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles we’d know about it.
I love the hypocrisy of some people
Not a mention of the Russians who had and may still have the biggest chemical and biological stockpile in history
It’s only bad when the US does it, for some people
@Jason Culligan – How would we know either party wasn’t fulfilling it’s it’s promises RE: destruction of chemical weapons?? Who oversee’s and ensures it has been carried out on both sides??
Well, this advertising feature has certainly worked on me! Where can I buy this stuff?
I can’t believe a communist leader would do such a thing. surely communist good capitalist bad. as the aaa/pbp
@Patrick Gough: Yes Patrick. This horrific inhuman chemical was created by communists as the article clearly states :P
@Eoghan Holland:
A quick google search shows that the USSR also produced weaponised VX. They may not have invented it, but they did make it.
@Jason Culligan: Fair point Jason. Not going to argue with you on it :) – It was just a little irresistible as Patrick here somehow has transformed his dislike of a political party into a moot point and i just thought it would be fun to counter it. I wouldn’t advocate north korean policies or assign myself to any political force, just thought i’d see how the straw man faired with a wee flame…
Actually look closely at AAAPBP economic policies it mentions ‘direct allocation’ of goods by the state as a future goal
Something the NKs are meant to have (hasn’t worked) and their lit is filled with references to a planned economy
Would that be the same family of organophosphate That was used in sheep dip and plug in air fresheners not so long ago
@Peter Hargan: It was Kim’s farts in a cloth?
15 years of the war with terrorism, but not with Kim. No oil in NK.
Guinness farts are toxic too.
You’d know…cooney…
So herewith evidence that NoKo has WMD. Will the imminent US invasion be televised?
’10 times more powerful as…’ not ’10 times as powerful as’.
If the two girls accused had the nerve gas on their hands and rubbed it in his face, how are they still alive
One of them was vomiting and I’ll after the attack so it is suspected she may have been in touch with a tiny amount. It appears from the CCTV footage that they rubbed his face with cloths. If only one side of the cloth was contaminated it would have lessened the risk to them.
Because the dose makes the poison
There’s cyanide in apples but not in a high enough dose to kill you
If you took 4 solphadene tablets at once now you’d not die but if we’re taking 100 at once you’d get toxic levels of paracetamol for some people.
Just like radiation (we encounter it every day) it’s a matter of how much
China is suspected of supplying deadly toxic to North Korea….
@Thosj Carroll: For coal???
@Thosj Carroll: And the US supplied nukes to Israel……
Weapons of mass destruction! Means the Americans have a reason to go in now just like Iraq
Jeez! Arnt you all SO INFORMED!!!!
His wee mad brother, might be something to cause heart attacks. GMO’s like a virus that will only kill certain people with certain genetic markers, what a thought?
have your say