Die the moment you put it on···Poison on Melania's clothes? ‘Iranian assassination propaganda video’ shakes the international community [Lee Yoon-Jung's Soso World] - 경향신문

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With tensions between the United States and Iran at a peak, Tasnim News Agency, a local outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), released a propaganda video targeting the assassination of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, unsettling the international community.

Released on the 28th (local time), the video shows Melania's movement routes, the luxury boutiques she often visits in New York, and security patterns, and even proposes a method of smearing a nerve agent on clothing she might buy. At the end, it includes a menacing line aimed at her youngest son, Barron Trump: “Wait”. The New York Post reported on the 27th (local time) that the video is “a shocking video that incites the assassination targeting Melania and Barron Trump”, adding that it even specifies Melania's routes and shopping locations.

Of course, this is not a confirmed assassination plot but a propaganda video. Yet what truly sent chills down people's spines was something else: imagining an ordinary piece of clothing as the weapon, rather than a gun or a bomb.

In fact, the history of assassination has always advanced this way: turning the most ordinary objects into the most lethal weapons. Umbrellas, tea, perfume, and even chocolate have all been used as tools of assassination.

Replica of the umbrella used in the 1978 poisoning attack on Georgi Markov. International Spy Museum, Washington

The most famous case is the 1978 umbrella assassination in London. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident journalist, felt a slight prick in his leg from an umbrella a man was carrying at a bus stop. He initially brushed it off, but died days later from a high fever and organ failure.

An autopsy found a metal pellet only 1.7㎜ in diameter. Inside was a very small amount of ricin. Extracted from castor beans, this toxin is still cited as a representative example of a biological poison.

British investigators concluded that the Soviet KGB conspired with Bulgaria's intelligence service to carry out the assassination. Since then, the Bulgarian umbrella has remained a symbol of clandestine operations in the Cold War era.

In 2006, another shocking incident unfolded. Former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko became gravely ill after drinking tea at a London hotel.

Tests detected polonium-210, a radioactive substance deadly even in trace amounts, in his body. A British public inquiry concluded that individuals linked to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out the poisoning and that the operation was likely approved by Russia's top leadership.

Declassified documents later revealed that during the Cold War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also researched assassinations using poison. The primary target was Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Plans ranging from poisoned cigars and laced chocolates to a toxic wetsuit and even an exploding seashell were considered, but most were never carried out or ended in failure.

It may sound bizarre, but the common thread is clear: hiding poison in everyday life is far more covert than aiming a gun.

Poison is among humanity's oldest assassination tools. In ancient Rome, there are records that arsenic compounds were abused as instruments of murder in power struggles. Arsenic is a naturally occurring metalloid that in the past was notorious as a nearly colorless, odorless toxic substance that was hard to detect when mixed into food or drink.

In Renaissance Italy, the Borgia family became associated in history with power struggles and poisoning. Pope Alexander VI and his son Cesare Borgia were engulfed in rumors that they used poison to eliminate rivals. Stories spread across Europe about a secret poison called cantarella, and legends said the Borgias served poison to competing factions at banquets. Modern historians, however, have suggested that many of these anecdotes may have been exaggerations or propaganda spread by political enemies. Even so, the Borgias have remained in popular culture and historical records as symbols of plots and power intrigues that used poison.

Because poison can conceal traces and allow more clandestine approaches than overt violence, it appears repeatedly in tales of power struggles and assassination across eras. The Iranian propaganda video likewise chose the scenario of smearing a nerve agent on clothing rather than using gunfire or explosions. The Times reported that, regardless of realism, it reads as psychological warfare designed to maximize the fear that ‘everyday life itself can be dangerous’.

What drew even more attention than poison in this video was information. It details the luxury stores Melania frequents, her routes, and the security setup. Today, with publicly available social media, location data, and photos, much of an individual's life pattern can be tracked. It is an era in which the ability to collect and analyze open information can be more threatening than assassination techniques.

In recent international conflicts, propaganda videos using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and social media have emerged as new instruments of war. Jessica Brandt, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), analyzed Iran's online offensive in a CFR piece last month, noting that Iran is expanding its influence in ways different from traditional state propaganda by leveraging memes familiar to U.S. popular culture and AI-generated content. Brandt, who previously served as director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)'s Foreign Malign Influence Response Center, has studied AI and foreign influence operations.

Sumiya Awasthi of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore also analyzed in a report in May that Iran's information warfare against the United States is evolving into a form that combines AI-based propaganda, cyber operations, and opinion management. He cited as characteristics of this generation of information warfare the use of generative AI, platform-tailored content, and memes for cognitive warfare.

The Associated Press likewise analyzed Iran-related online propaganda, reporting that pro-Iran actors are using AI-produced English-language memes and videos to spread messages aimed at Western audiences. Whereas past propaganda centered on government announcements or official outlets, now short, provocative AI content rides social media algorithms and penetrates directly to ordinary users.