Photo/Illutration After being attacked at Kuala Lumpur airport, Kim Jong Nam is carried to a hospital on Feb. 13, 2017. (Provided by a source)

Five years have passed since the world was shocked by the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Nam died after a highly toxic VX nerve agent was applied to his face in a lobby at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13, 2017.

The attack was perpetrated by two women, who were charged with murder and detained for more than two years. Both were later released, partly on the grounds of political decisions.

Investigations and court hearings in Malaysia have made it ever clearer that the North Korean authorities were involved in the killing in an organized manner.

The women had been enlisted, and instructed, to carry out the attack by men from North Korea’s secret police and embassy, who had told them that they were simply being asked to play a “prank.”

The Malaysian authorities put four suspects on an international wanted list, but Pyongyang has refused to cooperate, thereby consigning the truth of the case to eventual oblivion.

The aim and background of the assassination remain unknown, but it appears unlikely, in light of the nature of the North Korean regime, that Kim Jong Un was not involved.

The international community should continue questioning North Korea on its culpability, including by calling on the country to hand the suspects over.

This was not the first time that North Korea embroiled other nations in acts of terrorism.

Precedents include the 1983 Rangoon bombing, an attempt to assassinate South Korea’s president that killed 21 in Burma’s capital, and the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air Lines flight over the Andaman Sea, which left all the 115 people aboard the South Korean plane unaccounted for.

The KAL bombing prompted the United States to designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The designation was later lifted for some time until it was reinstated five years ago under the administration of President Donald Trump, supposedly taking into account Kim Jong Nam’s assassination.

The redesignation blocked North Korea’s access to loans from international financial institutions, which has exacerbated the country’s impoverishment. Pyongyang has always argued that it is under threat from the hostile policies of the United States and its allies, but it is, in fact, responsible for its own dire straits by engaging in perilous behavior.

The human rights situation in North Korea also appears to be only worsening.

Pyongyang has stepped up a transition to a market economy in certain sectors as part of reforms under the Kim Jong Un administration. However, it is also introducing laws to toughen penalties against the inflow of information and goods that could undermine the government’s rule, such as South Korean TV dramas and movies.

North Korea has also further intensified its control over the population in the name of preventive measures against the novel coronavirus pandemic, including by placing meticulous bans on people’s domestic travel.

The international community cannot afford simply to look on, doing nothing in the face of a similar situation.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in December to denounce human rights violations by North Korea, the 17th of the sort to be adopted successively year after year.

The U.N. resolution included a call for the immediate return of the Japanese nationals who were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tokyo should continue with its independent efforts to resolve the issue, while at the same time also working with the international community to step up pressure on North Korea over the human rights issue.

We should continue working persistently on North Korea in an unswerving stance saying that we disapprove not only of the country’s weapons of mass destruction but also its human rights violations.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 13

Related News