Japan: VX survivor recalls brush with Aum assassin in ’95

[TomSea]

VX survivor recalls brush with Aum assassin in ’95
AP, Kyodo    Feb 25, 2017

Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult that carried out the deadly sarin attack on Tokyo’s subway system in 1995, also experimented with an even deadlier nerve agent — VX, the same substance Malaysia says was used to assassinate Kim Jong Nam there on Feb. 13.

In March 1995, months before killing about a dozen commuters and sickening 6,300 in Tokyo with evaporating sarin, Aum had tried using VX on at least three people. One, whom the cult suspected was a police informant, was killed.

In court, members said they practiced using syringes to spray the world’s deadliest nerve agent on people’s necks while jogging. The suspected informant spent 10 days in a coma before dying.

Hiroyuki Nagaoka, 78, one of the two survivors, told NHK on Friday that the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother reminded him of his own experience.

Continued: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/02/25/national/japanese-survivor-recalls-cult-used-vx-attack-tokyo-1995/#.WLIs4Tj8pVI