Kim Jong-nam murder suspect explains how North Koreans recruited her for ‘assassination disguised as prank TV show’

Suspect Doan Thi Huong’s friend had introduced her to a ‘Korean man’ wanting to make a ‘funny video’ - that turned out to be an assassination attempt, a court has heard

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Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong (centre) is escorted by police as she arrives for a court hearing at Shah Alam High Court in Shah Alam, Malaysia, in February. She and another woman are accused of wiping VX on the face of Kim Jong-nam in an assassination widely thought to have been orchestrated by North Kore. Photo: AP

Published: 11:13pm, 14 Mar 2018Updated: 5:55am, 15 Mar 2018

A woman charged with the murder of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was tricked into committing the assassination by North Korean agents pretending they were in a prank TV show, a court heard Wednesday.

Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, the defence lawyer for Doan Thi Huong, 29, presented a statement given by Nguyen Bich Thuy, a bar owner and Huong’s friend, to the Vietnamese police on March 1, 2017, two weeks after Kim Jong-nam was murdered at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

In the statement, Thuy, 32, detailed how Huong was recruited by Ri Ji-hyon, one of four North Koreans wanted by the Malaysian authorities.

Huong has been charged at the Shah Alam High Court together with Siti Aisyah, 26, from Indonesia, and the four North Koreans still at large with killing Kim Jong-nam on February 13, 2017.

Huong and Aisyah were caught on airport security cameras wiping his face with what is believed to be the deadly nerve agent VX.

Siti Aisyah of Indonesia is the other woman charged with murder under Section 302 of the penal code, which carries mandatory death sentence if they are found guilty. Photo: EPA-EFE

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