Kim Jong-nam poisoning trial: Accused women plead not guilty

PYONGYANG: Two women accused of killing the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader with a banned nerve agent have pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in Malaysia’s high court, nearly eight months after the assassination.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, are suspected of rubbing VX agent in Kim Jong-nam’s face and eyes on 13 February at an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur, killing him within about 20 minutes. The women allege they were duped into believing they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

South Korea’s spy agency said the brazen killing was part of a five-year plot by North Korea’s ruler, Kim Jong-un, to assassinate a brother he may have never met.

Both suspects, who wore bullet-proof vests as they were led into court, face the death penalty if convicted. They both nodded their heads when the charge was read out to them.

Prosecutors are expected to call dozens of witnesses during the trial, starting with medical experts to establish the cause of death. Exposure to VX can result in convulsions, loss of consciousness, paralysis and fatal respiratory failure.

Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Huong’s lawyer, said the prosecution was expected to last for about two months, after which the judge would decide if there was a strong case for the women to mount a defence.

Kim, 45 or 46 when he died, lived a secretive life and travelled on several forged passports, most famously in 2001 when he used a fake Dominican Republic ID to enter Japan. He had told Japanese immigration officials he was planning to visit Disneyland in Tokyo.

The incident caused embarrassment to his father and former ruler, Kim Jong-il, which observers say led to his exile, living between Macau, China and Singapore, with some level of protection provided by Beijing, which has an uneasy relationship with North Korea.

In brief press interviews, Kim claimed he had no plans to defect and “no interest” in taking power in North Korea.

But as the eldest of his two brothers, he had a hereditary claim to the title of “great leader”, a position that led some experts to suggest his existence might have threatened Kim Jong-un, who has executed several senior officials in the past, including his uncle, on charges of treason.

Just weeks after his half-brother’s elevation to the isolated nation’s highest office in late 2011, Kim Jong-nam told a Japanese journalist the world would view Kim Jong-un’s leadership as a “joke”.