Kim Jong Nam was apparently killed in a poison attack in Malaysia on Monday.
In 2012, authorities in South Korea arrested a man who entered the country posing as a defector from the North. The man was indicted on suspicion of planning to attack Kim Jong Nam on orders he received from North Korean officials while hiding in China.
In 2004, South Korean media said Kim Jong Nam survived a trip to Austria because authorities there stepped up security after being told of a plot to assassinate him.
Kim Jong Nam is believed to have lived in Macau and other places outside North Korea. Chinese authorities are said to have been protecting him and his family.
He lived with his family in a villa in the Beijing suburbs, and regularly stayed at a luxury hotel in Macau. And he had been spotted eating at Japanese and Korean restaurants, and buying luxury goods.
Some analysts say North Korea covered his living expenses, while others note that he was involved in managing funds and exporting arms for Pyongyang. But the details remain murky.
His son, Kim Han Sol, entered an international school in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2011, and was admitted to the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies in 2013. Kim Han Sol once told foreign reporters that his father was not interested in politics.