Japanese cult also used VX; survivor recounts how it felt
TOKYO — 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 more in Tokyo with sarin, another kind of nerve gas, in March 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo cult tried VX on at least three victims, killing one whom cult members believed was a police informant.
In their trial, cult members said they practiced using 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 before dying.
One of the people 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 experience.