A suspect in the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s exiled half brother said she was paid $90 (£72) to carry out what she thought was a prank.
The Indonesian suspect, Siti Aisyah, met with her country’s deputy ambassador to Malaysia, said she had been introduced to people who looked like Japanese or Koreans who asked her to play a prank for a reality show, Deputy Ambassador Andriano Erwin said, according to the Associated Press.
Asked about whether she knew what was on her hands at the time of the attack, Erwin said: “She didn’t tell us about that. She only said that it’s a kind of oil, baby oil, something like that.”
Malaysia hasn’t directly accused the North Korean government of being behind the attack, but officials have said four North Korean men provided two women with poison to carry it out.
The four men fled Malaysia shortly after the killing, while Aisyah and another Vietnamese woman were arrested.
Doan Thi Huong also thought she was taking part in a prank, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said Saturday, after a representative from the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia met with Huong.
Kim, the older sibling of dictator Kim Jong-un, was poisoned at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur last week by the highly toxic nerve agent VX.
An odourless chemical with the consistency of motor oil, VX is an extremely powerful poison, with an amount no larger than a few grains of salt enough to kill. It can be inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through the skin. Then, in anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours, it can cause a range of symptoms, from blurred vision to a headache. Enough exposure leads to convulsions, paralysis, respiratory failure and death.
The killing of Kim Jong Nam took place amid crowds of travellers at Kuala Lumpur’s airport and appeared to be a well-planned hit. Kim died on the way to a hospital, within hours of the attack.
In grainy surveillance footage, the women appear to smear something onto Kim’s face before walking away in separate directions. Malaysian police said the attackers had been trained to go immediately to the bathroom and clean their hands.
Aisyah has said previously that she was duped into the attack, but Malaysian police say the suspects knew what they were doing. Experts say the women must have taken precautions so the nerve agent wouldn’t kill them.
An antidote, atropine, can be injected after exposure and is carried by medics in war zones where weapons of mass destruction are suspected.
Kuala Lumpur airport is to be searched for toxic chemicals following the killing.
Tens of thousands of passengers have passed through Kuala Lumpur’s airport since the apparent assassination was carried out. No areas were cordoned off and protective measures were not taken.
Experts say the nerve agent used in the attack was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory and is banned under an international treaty. But North Korea never signed that treaty, and has spent decades developing a complex chemical weapons program.
Kim 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.
Malaysian police said on Saturday that they would issue an arrest warrant for a North Korean diplomat if he refuses to cooperate with the investigation into 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 couldn’t compel him to appear.
But by the weekend, Abdul Samah Mat, the police chief leading the investigation, said authorities would give the diplomat “reasonable” time to come forward. If he doesn’t, he said, police will issue a notice compelling him to do so.
“And if he failed to turn up ... then we will go to the next step by getting a warrant of arrest from the court,” Abdul Samah told reporters.
Lawyer Sankara Nair, however, noted that diplomats have immunity privileges even in criminal cases.
“If he is a Korean diplomat with a diplomatic passport, then he has immunity no matter a criminal case or otherwise,” he said. “Police can apply for a warrant, but it can easily be set aside by the embassy.”