Two 'assassins' reveal all: Women arrested over nerve agent killing of Kim Jong-nam tell police they were 'good time girls hired in Malaysian massage parlors for $90 and told to carry out baby oil prank'
By Richard Shears | Daily Mail | February 25, 2017
In the seedy, sex-driven, underworld beneath Malaysia's world-wide image of respectability, two 'good time girls' made easy pickings for North Korean agents looking for 'patsies' to commit a murder.
Today the women, Doan Thi Huong, from Vietnam, and Siti Aishah, from Indonesia - both in their mid to late 20s - continued to be interrogated by Malaysian police about their roles in the murder of Kim Jong-nam who died after nerve agent was thrown in his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 13 February.
They are understood to have admitted they had worked in massage parlours and had also escorted wealthy Asian men around town, ending up in their bedrooms - and they made easy pickings for North Korean agents looking for women who could assume harmless identities for the deadly roles they were needed for.
Police are understood to be looking at preparing murder charges against the women despite their agreeing to tell everything about the men they met, the names they knew, and the promises that were made to them if they carried off their deadly mission of murdering Kim, the estranged elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Aishah has already admitted that she worked in a massage parlour, while Huong has told police that she earned money for her family back in Vietnam by escorting men in night clubs and being paid well for her services.
But, aside from the serious charges they now face - despite their claims that they thought they had been recruited to play a part in a jokey TV show in which members of the public would have a liquid sprayed in their faces - Huong has an added reason to regret.
She has fallen sick, police revealed, because she ingested some of the 'harmless' liquid she and Aishah were involved in spraying in Kim's face at Kuala Lumpur airport.
She has been vomiting and refusing food, sources said, because the liquid has been identified as a deadly nerve agent known as VX. Although she is not in any danger to her life, it is possible that she did not wash her hands properly after the airport incident.
Just where the deadly chemical came from - whether it was brought into the country by a North Korean agent or was produced locally - was still being investigated today but suspicion that it might have been produced in Kuala Lumpur has been suggested by The Star newspaper.
It reported that a hazardous material team had gone to an apartment in the city, understood to be where North Korean chemist, Ri Jong-chol, had been living, and had seized various chemicals, several pairs of gloves and shoes.
Malaysian experts are now trying to ascertain whether the deadly chemical used to kill Kim was made up of more than the nerve agent VX. But as far as the two arrested women were concerned, they continue to claim they did not know its dangers.
Aishah has told police that she believed the liquid was just baby oil.
Indonesia's deputy ambassador to Malaysia, Andreano Erwin, who visited Aishah today, told reporters today that she had been paid the equivalent of £72 to take part in the 'prank'.
'She didn't know it was poison. That is the answer from her,' he said.
'She only said in general that somebody had asked her to do it and she didn't know what would happened next.
'She mentioned some names but I did not recognise them. The names were very general…James, Jang, that's it.'
He said Aishah had told him that the men who had approached her were 'maybe Japanese or Korean.'
Eight North Koreans are wanted in connection with the murder, four of whom are suspected of having already escaped back to Pyongyang, but police are hoping for a 'big catch' with the arrest of a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy.
They have ordered 44-year-old Hyon Kwang Son, a second secretary at the embassy, to co-operate voluntarily with police - and he has been given 'reasonable time' to come forward.
Police chief Abdul Samah Mat said that if he failed to co-operate a warrant would be issued for his arrest.
Malaysian police Saturday told the public they would do everything possible to ensure there was no risk from the lethal VX nerve agent used to assassinate Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
People were worried about the use of the highly toxic agent developed for chemical warfare, state police chief Abdul Samah Mat said, after the audacious February 13 attack by two assassins at Kuala Lumpur airport.
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