Jong-nam’s murder was planned with advanced rehearsals — IGP

KUALA LUMPUR: Initial Malaysian police investigations have revealed that last week’s murder of Kim Jong-nam, the elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could have been planned with a series of rehearsals carried out in advance.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the two women detained in connection with the killing were said to have been involved in a number of rehearsals at shopping malls and a convention centre here, before executing the deadly task on Jong-nam.

“From our investigations, we now know that they did rehearse the scenario... before finally (executing the task) on the deceased,” he told a press conference at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman yesterday.

The two women, Vietnamese passsport holder Doan Thi Huong, 28, and Indonesian Siti Aishah, 25, have been remanded to facilitate police investigations.

“They knew it was a toxic substance to kill Jong-nam. At first, Siti Aishah approached the deceased and (allegedly) wiped his face with the toxic and this was followed by the Vietnamese suspect.

“The two suspects then went straight to the toilet to clean their hands immediately after the attack. They knew it was toxic.

“We strongly believe it (the murder) was planned and they (the two women) were trained to execute it...there is no way they did not know (it was poisonous or was a prank),” said Khalid.

Jong-nam was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) near here on Feb 13, while waiting for his flight to Macau when he was attacked by two women who wiped his face with a poison-laced cloth.

He reportedly died on the way to the Putrajaya Hospital.

Khalid explained that the four North Korean suspects who fled to Pyongyang at that point, were believed to have sprayed toxic liquid into the hands of two women before the murder occurred.

The two women were arrested separately, and are in police custody together with a North Korean man, Ri Jong Chol, 47, to assist in the investigations.

On Feb 6, Jong-nam had arived in Malaysia, using a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol.

Meanwhile, Khalid did not rule out the police investigations into the murder would take time. - Bernama