Women who ‘killed’ Kim thought it was prank

AS MALAYSIAN authorities began sweeping the airport terminal where North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un’s half brother was killed to check for possible traces of the nerve agent that was suspected to have been used in the attack, authorities said the two women suspects in the attack thought they were partaking in a prank.

Vietnam says Doan Thi Huong, the Vietnamese woman under arrest in Malaysia for allegedly helping to carry out the attack on Kim Jong-nam, thought she was taking part in a prank.

She is among two women arrested for the February 13 airport attack, which Malaysian police say was carried out with the banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent.

Vietnam’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website that a representative from the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia met with Huong on Saturday and confirmed that she is Vietnamese citizen. She is in stable health.

Indonesian embassy officials met the other suspect, Siti Aishah, and she told them she had thought she was part of a reality television show.

The sweep at the airport started around 2 am Sunday with parts of the departure hall of the budget terminal, where Kim was killed, cordoned off. It involved officers from the police’s chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear teams, as well as the fire department’s hazardous materials unit and the government’s atomic energy board.

Malaysia says it will issue an arrest warrant for a North Korean diplomat if he refuses to cooperate with the investigation into the deadly attack on North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un’s exiled half brother.

Abdul Samah Mat, the police chief leading the investigation, said authorities would give the diplomat “reasonable” time to come forward. Indonesia’s deputy ambassador to Malaysia had earlier said Huong was paid $90 to help carry out the attack.