DEADLY PLOT
Trial of North Korean ‘airport assassins’ set to reveal lurid details about ruthless Kim Jong-un
TWO women accused of fatally poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea despot Kim Jong-un pleaded not guilty as their trial started in Malaysia's High Court today.
The hearing was opened eight months after the brazen airport assassination which sparked a diplomatic standoff and shocked the world.
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Siti Aisyah, of Indonesia, and Doan Thi Huong ,of Vietnam, are suspected of smearing Kim Jong-nam's face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur.
He died about 20 minutes after the attack.
The women - who both wore bullet-proof vests to court - insist they thought they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.
After asking for the charges to be read in their native languages, the women shook their heads when asked if they were guilty.
The two women are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea's spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by Kim Jong-un to kill a brother he reportedly never met.
More lurid details about the despot and his spies are expected to emerge as the trial continues.
Police say several North Koreans suspected of involvement left the country on the day of the attack.
Others who holed up inside North Korea's embassy were allowed to leave in a deal with Pyongyang to ease tensions, despite Malaysia's anger at the public use of a chemical weapon on its territory.
Lawyers for two women, who face the death penalty if convicted, asked the court to compel prosecutors to identify four people still at large mentioned in the charge sheet as having a common intention to kill Kim.
The judge denied the request.
"A fair trial must include the right to know," Gooi Soon Seng, Aisyah's lawyer, told the court. "The charge must be clear, not ambiguous."
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Prosecutors began calling witnesses, including an airport information counter worker and a police officer who were among the first to interact with Kim after the attack.
The prosecution phase of the trial is expected to last about two months, after which the judge will decide if there is a strong case for the women to have to mount their defense, said Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Huong's lawyer.
Kim, who was 45 or 46, was the eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding, yet he reportedly fell out of favour in 2001 when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
He had been living abroad for years and at the time of his death was travelling on a North Korean diplomatic passport under the name "Kim Chol."
North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime, though Kim was not thought to be seeking influence over his younger brother.
He had, however, spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the reclusive, nuclear-armed nation.
The two defendants listened intently and were briefed by their translators during the trial, with Huong seen smiling on several occasions.
Aisyah's core defence will be that she didn't know she had poison on her hand when she smeared Kim's face and was instead the victim of an elaborate trick, her lawyer Gooi said before the trial began.
The 25-year-old was at a pub in Kuala Lumpur in early January when she was recruited by a North Korean man to star in what he said were video prank shows, Gooi said.
Over the course of several days, the North Korean, who went by the name James, had Aisyah go out to malls, hotels and airports and rub oil or pepper sauce on strangers, which he would film on his phone, the lawyer said.
Aisyah was paid $100-$200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as an escort, Gooi said.
The 29-year-old Vietnamese suspect Huong was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white sweatshirt emblazoned with the big black letters "LOL" the acronym for laughing out loud. Little is known about her.
Raised in a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago.
She made postings on a Facebook page under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, Dinh Thi Quyen.
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