>> narrar: tonight... >> if the united states is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. (rocket engine hisses and roars) un narrator: as tensions between north korea and thed states continue, a rare glimpse inside the regime... >> the half-brother of north korea's leader was assassinated using the most toxic nerve agent ever created >> narrator: the story of at murder thaleads back to pyongyang... >> people that say that this was a botched jobre not thinking like north korean intelligence operaeyves. e not thinking like killers. >> narrator: what it revealsng about kim jo-un...

>> in order to survive, he had to conduct politics inside the regime. kod politics inside north a is a blood sport. >> kim jong-un is ruthless, he's brutal, but he's not suicidal. he's not irrational. he's very shrewd and calculating. i think he has a plan, he has a goal, which is to complete the nuclear program. >> narrator: and the capabilities of his regime. >> he's managed to generate enough precision, technical acuity, and money in order to build a nuclear missile program that poses a genuine threat to the united states. >> we're truly in some uncharted territory. the game that they're playingha incredibly high stakes. >> narrator: tonight on "froline:" "north korea's deadly dictator." ti "frontline" is made possible by contris to your pbs station from viewers like you-- thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the

john dand catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed fu building a more just, verdant, and peaworld. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines ofocial change worldwide at fordfoundation.org. atthe park foundation, ded to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline joualism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. ♪ >> he was always like in a planc

going one pland the other. i was even surprised that he was cause at the time i thought that he was in. in paris. ♪ >> narrator: it's 9:00 on the morning of february 13, 2017. (plane whirring) an ordinary-looking man arrives at kuala lumpur airport, terminal two. >> i mean basically it's a huge terminal. once you're inside it's like a maze. there's so many types of people from all walks of life. >> narrar: the man is checking in for an air asia flight to the chinese territory of macau. >> he went to one of those self check-in kiosks to get h boarding pass. that's when he was approached by the two ladies, they sort ofom flanked him eft and right. n

rator: two women appear to bump into him. one appears to put a cloth over his mouth. then the women walk calm off and no one else seems to notice. the whole thing has taken less than five seconds. >> think he immediately felt the effect. probably less than a minutett after he wasked. that's why when you see the cctv hein front of the entrance he first made contact with the policeman, he was, rushing through something. but, since it happened so fast, they didn't know that this is a serious matter. >> by the time he was walking towards the clinic, he was already dragging his feet. he was sweating profely. his coordination went haywire. he had a minor seizure and then

he defecated. he died in the ambulance, by 11:05 i think, he was pronounced dead. >> narrator: the dead man was travelling on a north korean passport with the name kimhol. but as the pictures went around the world, it soon became clear who he really was: kim jong-nam, the half-brother of north korea's dictator, kim ng-un. >> the assassination of kim jong-nam was not only a surprising event, it was carried out in such a bizarre manner, that it's hard to imagine any other country on earth other than north korea carrying this thing out. the way that i see north korea

is an elaborate soap opera. it is ruled by individuals, it is not ruled by institutions, and i think the assassination of kim jong-nam is a very personaln thing insith korea and inside the heart of kim jong-un. >> north korea is living in aun woto itself. the last few months of the u.s. t rth korean relationship have been some of the mnse in the entire history, going back to 1953, the end of the korean war. if you want to understand what's actually going on in pyongyang, if you want to know why theyec make theions they make, one of the things you have to understand are these rare moments when thealace opens its doors inadvertently and let. yo and one those moments, perhaps its most spectacular moment, was the assassination of kim jong-nam. >> narrator: north korea hasbe en ruled for seven decades by the kim family dynasty.

they have created a fearsome police state accused of systematic human rights abuses. kim jong-nam was the oldest son noof kim jong-il, who rulerth korea for 17 years. >> narrator: his mother was kim jong-il's mistress, a famous north korean actress. >> his mother was number one film star in my generation. and his mother was a married woman with a daughter. every north korean people ew his mother's name, sung hae-rim, very popular lady. j ge kg-nam was not the son by official marr st>> narrator: the boy's ece was kept a secret in north korea.

but he was brought up in luxury, like a prince. >> k jong-nam's childhood wa very, very cloistered. the ceilings in the house were so high they needed to bring in scaffolding to dust the lights. there was always the off chance that kim jong-il would be dining with kim jong-nam, and so somebody literally goes through a sack of rice and pulls out any irregular, any broken piece of rice. you're talking perfect bag of rice sent to kim jong-nam's house. s >> he bit like his father. artistic, i think. and kim jong-il doted on kim jong-nam. otand when his family, hisr, aunt, et cetera was-s planning to send him away for education in foreign country, we knothat kim jong-il cried. w t and he remonstrated, protested agnst their plan.

>> narrator: despite the dictator's objections, the women prevailed. kim jong-nam was sent off ton schoolscow, and then geneva. >> my earliest memories of kim, we were, i think, around 15. one day we entered in class and we saw that guy who looked like an adult for us. we didn't know at the time that he was the son of-of kim jong-il.i we..ink we didn't even know he was korean. i mean, we didn't really care at the time, but we saw him arrive with his little attaché case, a black suit, his hair done just like his dad, you know. >> back then i called him lee. i called him lee, that's what hi told uname was, lee. i think that's what he showed us on his driver's license, i'm not sure. because we loved the fact he had a fake driver's license, we thought it was fake use he was obviously 15 in our class, but his license said he was 18, and he was driving, and we loved that. very, very jealous at the time,

you know, as all young boys would be. >> narrator: released from his secretive existence inside nortm korea,ong-nam got his first taste of life in the west. >> i remember too it was theli beginning of, cameras. and he was always taking his camera to school and filming everybody. today your phone has a cama, but at the time it-it was something special to have your own camera. >> i think he was just happy to take glimpses of life, you know, to photograph, so maybe it was interesting for him to film us carefree. >> narrator: but in 1988, that carefree life came to an end. the 17-year-old was summoned back to north rea. his father revealed him to the rest of the family, and analysts believe he was prepared for leadership, and exposed to the

regime's brutality. >> during the 1990s, as north korea's economy starts to sort, of deteriorae party authorities start to crack downw t's called asset stripping, or the selling of scrap metal to china and to other people. buses of surity agents would arrive in a town, a factory town, overnight. they would sithere and then they would start picking people to execute publicly. kim jong-nam was invved in that, and he was involved in attending public executions of party and economic officials. >> i don't think he had the ice in his veins necessary to do what it took to-to... you know, it's not ey to hold a country together the way they're holding a country together, you know. it's a certain skillset you ne that he didn't have. he was a nice boy. >> he's got different ideas and he starts to become a rebellious, you know, teenager or rebellious 20-year-ol

and this does not really sit well with kim jong-il. >> you're a prisoner in a gilded cage, you have everything but you have no freedom, a he wasn't happy, he wanted to leave. and he disnctly told me he had to ask his father to leave. ra >> narr: eventually, his father let him go, but only as far as nghboring china. >> strange reports that the esanged half-brother of ki jong-un is dead and possibly murdered. >> it looks like something straight out of the pages of a spy novel. north korean royalty, kim jong-nam, thestranged exiled half-brother of leader kim jong-un, falls ill... >> narrator: within days of the murder, malayslice captured the two women who carried out the attack in the airport. >> both women, police say, practiced the attack several times before last monday's assault. >> narrator: it was becoming a huge international story.

>> there was an adrenaline rush to it, it was quite addictive, i have to admit. as far as the police are concerned, it was pretty clear cut, everythg was on cctv camera, they had done the act, that was for sure. >> narrator: but the story was about to take its firstl sensatiotwist. one of the killers, 25-year-old indonesian siti aisyah, now gave her version of what happened. she claimed that six weeks earlier she had met a japanese man called james. he'd offered her a job: workra on a hidden carank show for youtube. >> when she met this so-call james, she was asked to watch another lady to e how the prank was being played. s and thereaft was asked to play about three pranks, and after the prank she was paid a certain sum of money. and the next day againas

taken the airport where, again, they played about thr pranks on-- at the arrival area. >> narrator: with james, siti said she carriedut more than 20 filmed pranks on people she thought were unsuspecting members of the public. is siti posted ideo on facebook. >> when we go... >> narrator: the man she knew as james seemed a little camera shy. >> now siti was a social escort, and she was also a masseuse, and her income wasn't very high, and she didn't quite like the job that she was doing. and when she was introduced to play these pranks, she was quite excited about the whole thing. she even told all her friends about the pranks that she played because she actually believed that this could have been her

new career. >> narrator: the second woman involved in the attack was 28- year-old doan thi huong. she came from over a td miles away in vietnam. doan also said that she had been rehearsing . >> narrator: siti claims she never met doan before that day in kuala lumr airport. in custody, they were charged with murder, which in malaysia is punishable with the death penalty. >> now siti did not know that kim jong-nam died on the day of. the incide she only realized after the police came to her. we told her what actually happened now that she had been charged for a case, which is punishable with death, and then she realized how serious the matter was, and then she broke

down, yeah. >> the representatives of the two ladies are standing firm on the fact that these ladies were deceived. on the other hand, somebody has to be held accountable for the murder. you cannot plead ignorance in your defense. were they victims? were they tricked into believing that they were part of a show? or were they willi l rticipants in the plot? that the court wilhave to decide.we will just wait and see. ♪ >> narrator: by the late 1990s, kim jong-nam appeared to bee living theof an international playboy. based in macau-- known as the las vegas of china-- there werea reports that hmore than one wife and several children. >> on the whole, he was more like a tycoon without taste for

hard work of a typical tycoon. he was a kind of playboy, typical bourgeoisie playboy mentality. and he never lacked the money. lots of money to spend. lots of money, but he still seemed tbe wanting more money. >> narrator: so how did kim jong-nam fund this lifesyle? there are clues in kuala lumpur, malaysia. when he was here, kim jong-nam would often eat at this korean restaurant. >> (speaking korean): >> (speaking korean):

narrator: though he'd been living abroad, kim jong-nam hadn't cut ties to north korea. analysts suspect he was running an international business network, generating funds for the family. >> (speaking korean): >> kim jong-nam was involved in a whole host of illicit businesses thanorth korea conducted. he could have been involved in the nucleamissile arms trade,en he could have nvolved in currency counterfeiting, he could've been involved with some drug smuggling. so it was unclear exactly what he did for a living, but we know

that he was involved in this whole host of things that... gorticularly that involved money and currency tha back to north korea. >> narrator: by 2007, kim jong-nam was a wealthy wheeler-dealer, believed to be playing a key role in his father's regime. nearly a week after th killing, the malaysian police announced a major breakthrough. >> as investigation progresses, four suspects has been identified, which could assist us very much on the investigation. and i can confirm today at they have left our country the very same day the incident happened. yeah. thank you very much. >> narrator: the two foreign women hadn't been operating alone in kuala lumpur airport. this came as no surprise to kim dong-sik, a former north korean

intelligence officer who defected to south korea. >> (speaking korean): k >> (speakiean): >> narrator: the cctv footage from the airport showed at least four men whom auorities believed were north korean operatives. >> narrator: the key figure was a man in a gray-striped shirt

identified by police as 57-year-old ri jae-nam. >> ri jae-nam is a long-time north korean intelli operative, somebody that's got extensive contact overseas. >> narrator: ri jae-nam appears to coordinate the operation from beside a pillar. as kim jong-nam looks at the departure board, he couldn'tve hanown he was now surrounded by north korean ents. then the two young women separately approach their target. ng >> (speaorean): >> narrator: as kim jong-nam enters the clinic, another man suspecd of being a north korean agent follows close behind.

>> (speaking korean): >> narrator: before kim jong-nam was confirmed dead, the suspected north korean agents had already made their escape. according to immigration officials, they boarded a plane and flew to jakarta, then dubai, and ultimately onto pyang, the capital of north korea. it looked like theerfect hit. >> the recruitment of two foreigners was done so that thel coremove their fingerprints fromhis assassination, and essentially point the finger in another direction. i suspect they were expecting these women, because they didn't use gloves, to die of this chemical. but the women went to the bathroom very quickly, washed off the chemical, and ble to survive. (cameras clicking)

>> narrator: but within days the malaysian police were pointing the finger firmly at north korea. it brought complete denial. >> it has been seven days since the cident, but there is no clear evidence on the cause of the death.he and atoment we cannot trust the investigation by the malaysian police. they pinned the suspicion on us and targeted the investigation against us. now there are so many rumors spread to e public to defame the image of the democratic people's republic oforea, the malaysian police should bear the full responsibility for that. thank you. this is my all comment. thank you. (reporters clamoring)

>> narrator: the killing in kuala lumpur was the latest chapter in the bloody history of the north korean regime. it traces back to 2008, when the dictator kim jong-il suffered a debilitating stroke. he had to choose a succeor from among his children. he had at least two daughters, but they we ruled out because they were women. he once reportedly complained that all his sons were "idle blockheads." kim jong-nam-- his oldest-- was now seen by many as too westernized. >> how's your relationship with your brother? >> narrator: there was a mysterious second son. little is known abouhim, other than that he is an eric clapton

fan who pops up at concertshe around torld. th e was one more option. >> there's this younger guy, he's 23, 24 years old, his name'sim jong-un, starts to get the similar kind of jobs that kim jong-nam got, because this is a family business, and so you're gonna get a job. mi the kim -- they trust you, they trust family members, and o kim jong-un's career ki starts, and that's the best option, because that's a they know, that's the life they know, is the strongman dictator. m >> narrator: with jong-il's health failing, the yohful kim jong-un was anointed succeor. he now needea crash course in dictatorship. (weeping) but this training was cut short0 in december , kim jong-il

died. still in his 20s, kim jong-un was now declared supreme leader. >> there's a lot of mystery jong-un got how ki the job; i mean, there's a lot of mystery around a lot in north korea. but one of the things that's become clear is that kim jong-un essentially won a ttle for succession, and he won it on the basis partly of attitude and aggression. (cheers and plause) when kim jong-un became the successor to kim jong-il, that came with it a tremendous amount of expectation and responsibility. there had never been a third generation communist dictatorship. a lot of people predicted it wouldn't last. >> kim jong-un did not have decades build his power base within the regime. he has only had a few years to do something that it took his father 30 years to do.

in order to survive, he had to conduct potics inside the regime. and politics inside north korea is a blood sport. it is not something for the weak of heart. >> narrator: within months of assuming power he begabrutal purge of senior officials-- leanyone who might have ched him. the second most powerful man in north korea was kim's uncle jang song-thaek. in december 2013, was executed. kim jong-nam was another threat to the new lear's legitimacy. g he hone public with his criticism of the sucssion. >> (speaking japanese):

>> narrator: between 2010 and 2012, kim jong-namxchanged almost 150 emails with japanese journalist yoji gomi. in them he criticized the decision to transfer power to a third generation of the kim family. and he suggested that the new leader lacked experience and would end up aa "mere figurehead." he also criticized how the country was being run.ki jong-nam's experience of living in china had persuaded him that north korea should open up and introduce chinese-stylefo s. >> (speaking japanese):

>> (speaking japanese): >> narrator: less than a month after kim jong-un came to power, yoji gomi published the emails it was a stunning public insult to nor korea's new dictator. on >> kimun has to make a decision whether he let his half-brother, wandering around the world from time to time meeting foreign journalistnd saying negative, you know,

words against kim jong-un's leadership, ore should eliminate the physical existence of kim jong-nam. >> according to some decent intelligence sourcing, there was a standing order as of 2011 or 2012 to take out undesired members of t ruling family. and so this is when people in north korea's intellence services get a little creative. kim jong-nam was living on borrow time. this was on a narrow list of possibilities as to how kim jong-nam's life was gonna turn out for him after hi half-brother succeeded in north korea. >> narrator: kim jong-nam began to keep a lower profile. it was becoming harder for him to travel to and from north korea and make money. ♪ by early 2017, he'd had enough.

>> three or four days before he di text me a message saying, "i'll see you in geneva. i'll be back in three days." ke he was, coming back to geneva to search back all his youth, like, part of a timewe wherad nothing to think about, nothing to be afraid of. >> narrator: kim jong-nam told his friends that he wanted to move to europe and cnge his citizenship-- in essence, defecting to the west. >> i think he let his guard down t somewhat in europe, he fre safe and more secure here, especially in switzerland. was he wried? yeah, would he be talking about moving to europe if he wasn't slightly worried? prably. >> it's not easy to live the life he lived. okay, ybe he had a bit of money, we don't even know how much he had. he was very secret aboutt, but money's not everything. i mean, if you cannot live ureely your life, then i'm like, someing breaks inside of you. >> narrator: moving to europeg

and defectuld pose a major threat to kim jong-un's regime. >> from foreign intelligence services' perspective, this is somebody that you want to get to know.su so, i' cia would have tried very hard to recruit him. ultimately, i think kim jong-un was afraid that should hostile powers like united states, or maybe even china, one day want to have a change in regime, that they could put kim jong-nam as head of that new leadership in north korea, because of course kim jong-nam has legitimacy. >> (speaking japanese):

>> (speaking japanese): >> last week at kuala lumpur airport, someone chose to attack kim jong-nam. today, we learned what killed him. and it's even more sho >> ...now determined that a chemical weapon was used to assassinate north korean leader kim jong-un's half-brother. >> narrator: the next revelation from the malayolice took the story to a new level. >> a press release was sent out to media outlets from the inspector general of police, saying that his cause of death was due to something kno as vx agent, which was completely new to us.

it sounded like something out of a spy novel. >> the chemical that we discovered which caused the death is vx... which is a lethal weapon registered under the... registered as a chemical weapon. >> i recall that on monday morning i got a call from our director general's office. apparently we had received aer notele from the malaysian embassy here, asking for the opcw's aistance, and they wanted some technical assistance, th wanted some advice from me, some reference materials and whatnot. >> narrator: the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons confirmed the findings about what killed kim jong-nam. >> vx is a nerve agent. it's actually the most powerful nerve agent that's known to date. it's about ten times more powerful than sarin, about 300

times more powerful than mustard gas, and about 5,000 times more potent than chlorine, so it's really toxic. it takes about ten milligrams to kill an average adult person. now, ten milligrams is just a fraction of a drop, so it doesn't take very much. it looks like a horrible way to die.ca you bay suffocate, you-you convulse, you're jerking around. it's not pleasant at all. >> why use a chemical vx nerve agent, in a public international airport? so many things could have gone wrong. one ofhe ladies could have kind of just done it wrong th somebody else, just b tripping. so many accidental possibilities. >> you needed something that would kill him, buthat you would have the lag time or the delay in t death that would allow the north koreans to get t of the country. if you slit his throat, you, one, can't do it in a public place, two, you can't use foreign agents that you have

duped into thinking that this is some sort a game show. >> and i think kim jong-un wanted to make a point to any would-be rivals, potential opponents, defectors out there, saying, "i can kill you in any manner." so, i think he wanted it to be public, he wanted the whole world to know. >> narrator: vx is banned under e international chemical weapons convention. but analysts have long been n convinced thth korea is manufacturing it. >> north korea has a long- standing chemical weapons progra they've had this program for a number of decades, it's quite large, it's on a military scale, it was designed for war fighting. north korea's likely the only couny currently in the world today that has active chemical, lyological, and nuclear weapons programs, and possven the ability to deploy all three. that really puts them in a

league of their own, in terms of current capabilities. >> big story here, keep an eye on it. north korea firing four ballistic missiles toward the sea of jap early monday morning. >> tonight, kim jong-un could be one step closer to threatening america with a nuclear-tipped missile. the ballistic missiles hisst regime just ired... >> narrator: three weeks after the assassination, kim jong-un had another point to make. >> (speaking korean): ar >>tor: he began the most intense period of missile testing in north korea's history. (explosions) the months since the assassination, kim jong-un has launched more missiles than his father launched during his entire reign, developith korea's ability to rea farther and farther distances.

>> north korea is now very close to completing their program, nuclear program, perfecting their nuclear arsenal, having an ability to attack ited states with nuclear-tipped icbm. and now kim jong-un is trying to complete this program, and he's very, very close to doing that. so we are at the final stages and this is why we're uniquely in a very dangerous ti period. >> what we're seeing now is not.h korea trying to break what do we mean by that? to go from a country that simply has the ability to produce a nuclear weapon, to a country eathat can field a nuclearn, that can deler it, that has a stockpile, a reasonasizedwe stockpile-elieve anywhere by public estimates 30 to 60 nuclear weapons. they're clearly very close to the delivery capability, their actual weaponization and miniaturization of their nuclear warheads has progressed substantially.

can they put all that together perfectly yet? we don't know, but nobody really wants to test the proposition. >> narrator: in early 2017, president trump had informed the world on twitter that he would not allow north korea to complete its nuclearra pr (explosion) but on the fourth of july, kim jong-un took a significant stepr fo he launched a missile which could have reached alaska, a so-called independence day "gift" for the quote "american bastards." >> (speaking korean): >> on the fourth of july, north korea achieved a major milestone in the develment of its missile capability. what they did was that they fired an icbm, annt

interconti ballistic missile, that was capable of reaching the united states. they fired it way up int atmosphere and it came down, so it actually only fell into the pacific. buwhat they discovered as result of that was that they now had the ability to menace the united states with a weapon. that was a threshold that, frankly, the american intelligence community neverer thought theygoing to reach as soon as they did, and certainly a lot of analysts were surprised. from that point on, the united states had many fewer options that they had before; they were now dealing withdversary that was capable, in theory, of putting a nuclear weapon on the coinental united states. >> north korea best not make ano threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. he has been very threatening beyond a normal statement. and as i said, they will be met with fire, fury, and, frankly, power, the likes of whis world has never seen before.

thank you. >> i arrived in north korea a little over a week after donald trump began to escalate the rhetoric from the united states. and when i arrived, i was spending time with north korean government officials whose job it w was to try to assess, a analyze, and understand the united states. and they we mystified, frankly; they were just befuddled. this was nothe united states they'd dealt with before, they couldn't figure out what he was thying, they couldn't figure out if he was trustw and they couldn't figure out if he was serious. (man shouting on loudspeaker) >> narrator: the day after president trump's th at to unleash fire and fury, north korea staged a show of defiance in pyongyang.in (crowd cha >> north koreans havemselves told me that they are willing to use nuclear weapon, but only whend.hey feel truly threatene what i'm concerned about is for north korea to miscalcand misunderstand our intentions ana think ack is coming, or regime change is coming when

we're-we're not doing that. and this is a problem when there's a lot of bluster with very heightened rhetoric of "fire and fury" and "locked and loaded" and so on, because itor could lead koreans to miscalculate. >> narrator: in this ppaganda video released two weeks later, north korea threened to launch a strike on america's pacific base of guam. >> one of the biest, hardest questions facing the united states and other countries is why, why does north korea want a nuclear weapon so desperately, and why is it willing to give up so much order to achieve it? there is one school of thought, which says that they fundamentally just want self-defense. maey looked at what happened to saddam hussein, mugaddafi and they decided that will never be us, we will never give up our weapons ogram, and therefore nobody will be able to attack us. but there's another view, and that view is that ultimately they want nuclear weapons order to achieve what has always been north korea's objective, which is to ing south korea to

its knees, and to drive the united states off the peninsula. >> i think kim jong-un wants to prove that he's a legitimate leader. and nuclear weapons program certainly part of that. and by perfecting and completing this proam that his father and grandfather have pursued for the course of many years, he will prove to the koreans that he's a true leader, a strong leader who can be defiant against the united states. (beeping) ♪ t >> narrator: bn, north korea toned down its rhetoric, announcing it was putting its plans to hit guam on hold. for president trump, this was a sign that his approach was working. >> and you see what's going on in north korea. all of a sudden, i don't know,

who knows, but i can tell you, what i said, that's not strong enough. some people said it was too strong; it's not strong enough. but kim jong-un, i respect the fact that i believe he's starting to respect us, i respect that fact very much. respect that fact. (beeping) (rocket fires) >> narrator: within days, north korea launched one of its most provocative missiles yet. itatassed over japan's populed island of hokkaido, flying for about 1,700 miles, almost the same distance as it would take to reach guam. >> the trump administration has what we would consider sort of a classic dilemma. they have only choices of bad

options. we can dramatically increase the pressure, economic and otherwise, to see if we can pressure north korea to the negotiating table. or we can choose to treat north korea as a country that has nuclear capabilities and try to develop a more effective andr more stable dece relationship with them. w can consider military options, to try to pre-emptively degrade their nuclear capability. of course that's profoundly risky, and would likely trigger a broader-scale war, which would bring considerable destruction. >>e u.s. were to launch milita strikes against north korea, to try to take out the nuclear program, this could cause north korea then to react towards south korea-- bombing

seoul, artillery strikes against seoul-- which then could unleash an escalatory ladder that no one could find an exit ramp off of. and you could then devnto a war on the peninsula, which potentially could go nuclear. (marching band playi) the way that i see north korea is whatever decision is made, when they decide to test another nuclear weapon, test an icbm, it's all in service of regime survival or perpetuation okim family rule. they will not make a decision that will violate those. and that gets back to the decision to assassinate kim jong-nam. those decisions were taken because of the need for kim jong-un to perpetuate his own power. ♪ >> narrator: to this day, north korea remains adamt that the man who was kied in kuala

lumpur airport was not kim jong-nam but a citizen called kim chol, who died of natural. caus few are convinced. >> it was like more sort of a i dramatic andenious than james bond film. of course, that was not completely successful. they left behind so many traces of north korean involvement. >> 100% kim jong-un gave the orde there is no way, i would say zero possibility a north k korean agent cl kim jong-nam, the supreme leader's half brother, without directgu ance and order and approval by kim jong-un himself. >> the mission was a success in the fact that ey killed kim jong-nam. none of the north korean nationals implicated in this assassination has been brought for criminal charges.

people that say that this was a botched job are not thinking like north korean intelligence operatives, they're not thinking like killers. >> the operation by no means was perfect, but at the end end of the day, kim ntng-nam is dead, and kim jong-un made a phat no one is safe. the way in which kim jong-un chose to kill kim jong-nam, most brutal most ruthless, most painful way possible. i think this says a lot about the aracter and temperment of kim jong-un himself. >> the present leader eliminated one possible sources of a threat to his throne, but i do not believe that makes his thre more stable or secure. one of the curses of-of the tyrant is that he or she never feels secure in the position of power. >> brutality, which isuch a fundamental fact of an

authoritarian regime, is a very tricky instrument to play. (applause) kim jong-un has tried to use brutality very publicly, very aggressively. he's purged a huge number of nior officials, he has h them executed in very public ways. and one of the questions whether he's gone too far, and in so doing, has he begun the process of ultimately his own undoing. because that would become the ammunition that a challenge somewhere within the system would use to decide it may be ttime for another member kim family to take over. >> narrator: although kim jong-un has removed the threat from his older brother, the kim family tree stillhe has many bra >> my name is kim han-sol, from north korea, part of the kim family. here's my passport. ek>> narrator: just three after kim jong-nam's death, this

mysterious video was posted by a previously unknown group.ho it kim han-sol, kim jong-nam's oldest son. >> it shows that he's safe and it that he's alive you know, he could be a shadow darkening kim jo-un's doorway at some point. he could prove to be troublesome to north korea down the line as a public figure, as a mber of the kim family, he-he could prove to be a nuisance to kim jong-un. >> (speaking korean): >> narrator: for now, north korea continues to raise the nuclear stakes, claio have developed a hydrogen bomb. >> (speaking korean):

>> if you study kim jong-un it's impossible not to be impressed, to some degree, by his ability to fend off the critics, the threats, the people who said it was going to be impossible for him to do what he did. this is a country that has a gdh at's one-third the level of ethiopia, d yet he managed to generate enough precision, technical acuity, and money in order to build a nuclear missile program that poses a genuinee threat to ited states. by any measure that's an achievement. it is also one, however, that has probably undermined the long termtability of his own regime.n >> rocket on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. >> from north korea a unique threat vowing to make president trump "pay dearly", calling him a mentally deranged

dotard president trump tweeted that the north korean leadership won't be around much longer. >> ...very, ry dangerous accusations, a top north korean official now says president trump has declared war on north korea.nd over the wee. >> president trump took to iditter sunday, appearing to cast doubt on th that diplomacy could resolve the cris over north korea's nuclear program. >> ...the tension between north korea and the u.s. isti esca. >> ...as the risks of miscalculation rise. >> at the end of thenorth korea doesn't want to use these nuclear weapons, but they probably will if they believe the regime is at stake, that survival's at risk, and they have no other choice. kind of call that geing backed up into a corner. if they're in the corner, they may well use it, they might know that the response wo overwhelming, but at that point it won't matter to them because

they care most about the regime. >> ...the violent ms-13 gang for machete attacks. >> ...police have uncohured n remains... >> if you're an ms-13 gang member, take a look behind me. for evy person here, there is 10 more. >> ...a major crackdown... >> they said, "we're taking the boy. uh, we're government." >> we have seen a significant number of ms-13 gang members who entered the united states as unaccompanied minors. >> anyone can be labeled and cause them to be detained, and eir civil rights to be violated, and these are children. /f >> go to pbs.orgrontline to learn more about u.s. efforts to stop north korea's n progress. >> the last few months of the u.s. north korean relationip have been some of the most tense in the entire history. >> reamore about china's struggles to contain kim jong un. visit our films page where you

can watch more than 20on ine documentaries. connect to the frontline community on facebook and twitter. and sign up for our newsletter at pbs.org/frontline. >> "frontline" is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you-- thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcastin major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. jcarthur foundation, committed to building a mot, verdant, and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the ford foundation, woing with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide at fordfoundation.org. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. e john and helen glessne family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism thatan informinspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from

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