Kim Jong-Nam, the ‘Little General’ who fell from grace

A man watches a television showing news reports of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, in Seoul - AFP

SEOUL: They used to call him the “Little General” but Kim Jong-Nam -- once heir-apparent to his father and North Korea’s then-leader Kim Jong-Il -- fell from grace in 2001 after a spectacular blunder.

On Tuesday, after more than a decade in exile from the North, Jong-Nam -- the 45-year-old half-brother of current leader Kim Jong-Un -- was widely reported by South Korean media to have been assassinated in Malaysia.