Two women plead not guilty to the murder of Kim Jong Nam

Two women pleaded not guilty to murdering the half-brother of North Korea’s leader as their trial at Malaysia High Court began.

Kim Jong Nam was killed using the highly toxic VX nerve agent as he waited for a flight at Kuala Lumpur airport on 13 February.

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 29, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, are accused of rubbing the chemical on his face.

The women have said they thought they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera TV show and had been hoodwinked by men suspected of being North Korean agents.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is believed to have considered his older sibling a potential rival for power.

Yesterday’s court session was primarily a reconstruction of Kim Jong Nam’s final moments at the airport.

Pyongyang has denied any involvement in the killing.

However, in court, prosecutors said that four men – believed to be four North Koreans who fled Malaysia on the day of the murder – were also charged in the case.

Witnesses recounted the last moments of Kim Jong Nam as the trial began yesterday.

Airport information assistant Juliana Idris, the first person Mr Kim went to after being attacked, told the court that “his hands were shaking a bit” but she did not know why.

She said Mr Kim told her “he was attacked from behind by two women”, with one of them wiping something over his eyes.

She said that, at Mr Kim’s request, she took him to file a report with a police officer before going to a clinic.

Police officer Mod Zulkarnain Sanudin testified that Mr Kim’s eyes were red and he could see some liquid on his face. But he could not tell if it was sweat or something else.

He said he had mistakenly reported that Mr Kim was South Korean because he had misidentified his passport, issued under North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The passport used Kim’s pseudonym, Kim Chol.

Airport clinic nurse Rabiatul Adawiyah Mohamad Sofi said that before Kim had a seizure, she used facial tissue to wipe liquid off his face, but it seemed that he was still sweating. She said Mr Kim appeared tobeinpainandtoldhersomeone sprayed liquid on his face.

Airport clinic doctor Nik Mohd Adzrul Ariff Raja Azlan said Kim was unable to respond when he was asked what had happened.

“When I saw him, his hands were clutching his head. He was closing his eyes tightly and his face was very red.”

The trial continues.