The assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother reflects the young dictator’s “monomaniacal” character, a lawmaker from the parliament’s national intelligence committee said Wednesday.

“It seems like the timing of the assassination has no meaning. It is rather a reflection of Kim Jong-un’s monomaniacal side than a calculated move to remove a threat to his regime,” Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the Democratic Party of Korea told reporters after a closed-door session with the nation’s spy agency chief.

“An assassination attempt from North Korea was first spotted in 2012. Kim Jong-nam sent a letter begging for his and his family’s life to his brother Kim Jong-un in April that year,” Kim said. “In the letter, Kim Jong-nam said ‘Please cancel the punishment order for me and my family. We have nowhere to go. Suicide is the only way to escape.’”