YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. The United States has determined Pyongyang used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia in 2017 and has imposed sanctions in response, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement the U.S. government made the formal determination about the use of VX on Feb. 22 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.

The additional sanctions on Pyongyang went into effect on March 5.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson determined North Korea had “used chemical weapons in violation of international law or lethal chemical weapons against its own nationals.

Kim’s estranged half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. Two women are on trial on charges of murdering Kim by smearing his face with VX.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan