Kim murder suspect ‘was paid €80 for TV prank’
ONE of two women suspected of using a deadly nerve agent to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has claimed she was paid the equivalent of €80 for what she thought was a harmless prank.
Indonesian citizen Siti Aisyah (25) claimed she was told she was playing a prank for a reality television show, according to an Indonesian diplomat.
Aisyah said she had been introduced to people who looked like Japanese or Koreans who asked her to take part in a programme.
Asked about whether she knew what was on her hands at the time of the attack, an official said: “She didn’t tell us about that. She only said that it’s a kind of oil, baby oil, something like that.”
A Vietnamese woman who was arrested, Doan Thi Huong, also thought she was taking part in a prank.
Her country’s foreign ministry said she thought she was making a comedy video.
The investigation has unleashed a serious diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea, a prime suspect in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur Airport on February 13.
The revelation by Malaysian police last Friday that the banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used to kill him raised the stakes significantly in a case that has broad geopolitical implications.
Police said yesterday they would conduct a sweep of the airport terminal where Kim Jong-nam was killed to check for possible traces of VX.
Experts said the nerve agent used in the attack was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory and is banned under an international treaty. North Korea never signed that treaty, and has spent decades developing a complex chemical weapons programme.
Kim Jong-nam was not an obvious political threat to his estranged half-brother. But he may have been seen as a potential rival in North Korea’s dynastic dictatorship, even though he had lived in exile for years. North Korea has denied any role in the attack.
Malaysia said earlier in the week that Hyon Kwang Song, a second secretary at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, was wanted for questioning. But authorities acknowledged at the time that he has diplomatic immunity and that they could not compel him to appear.
Yesterday, Malaysia’s tone changed. The police chief leading the investigation said authorities would give the diplomat “reasonable” time to come forward. If he does not, he said, police will issue a notice compelling him to do so.