Kim Jong-nam ‘assassin’ recruited at massage parlour for just £72 to carry out what she thought was a PRANK involving baby oil
THE suspected assassin of Kim Jong-un's half-brother was recruited at a massage parlour for just £72 to carry out what she thought was a prank involving baby oil.
Siti Aishah, 25, was recruited to kill Kim Jong-nam for $90 (£72), Indonesian Police say.
The young woman insists she thought she was carrying out a baby oil prank - and had no idea she would be committing murder.
Deputy Ambassador Andriano Erwin repeated the 25-year-old's claims after speaking to her today.
The 28-year-old and her accomplice, Doan Thi Huong, 28, were recruited in massage parlours, The Sun revealed today.
Cops yesterday said they used a highly toxic nerve agent to kill the North Korean exile.
Police are now sweeping Kuala Lumpur International Airport to look for toxic chemicals.
The two women are believed to have been picked for the mission because their looks made them appear harmless.
According to intelligence sources, the women performed a “binary assault”.
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Their target reeled in confusion as the killers slipped to toilets to wash chemical traces off their hands.
One was said to have been affected by the compound and vomited in the loos after the February 13 attack.
By the time the pair fled in a taxi Jong-nam was convulsed in pain in an ambulance gasping his last words: “Very painful, very painful! I was sprayed with liquid.”
In 1996 thriller The Rock a gang of rogue US marines use missiles filled with the nerve agent to target San Francisco from prison island Alcatraz.
Malaysian officials yesterday confirmed traces of VX were found on 45-year-old Jong-nam’s face and eyes.
North Korean agents from a spy network known as The Third Floor are thought to have orchestrated the hit. They acted on orders from the victim’s half-brother Jong-un, 33.
Jong-nam, eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, had criticised his family’s despotic rule.
Nuclear-armed North Korea is believed to have up to 5,000 tons of chemical and biological weapons stashed away.
Aishah and Huong were arrested soon after the killing. Their claim they thought they were taking part in a TV prank was discredited.
Investigators have described them as the “lizard’s tail” in the operation — an expression referring to hired assets which can be discarded without consequence. And police chiefs leading the murder probe insisted “they knew exactly what they were doing”.
The pair are said to have carried out dry runs for the assassination at Kuala Lumpur shopping malls.
Yesterday Huong’s father Doan Van Thanh said his daughter could not have knowingly taken part.
The 63-year-old, who lost a leg fighting the Americans in the Vietnam War, said: “I don’t believe she did such a thing, she was a very timid girl. When she saw a rat or frog, she would scream.”
He revealed his daughter left home in a village south of Hanoi aged 17 to study pharmacy at college. Huong later flew to Malaysia without telling her family.
She has several Facebook accounts, including three under the names Ruby Ruby, Ring Ring and Bella Tron Tron Bella.
A video on one reveals she was last year a contestant on Vietnamese TV’s version of Pop Idol. Her disastrous audition ended after just one line: “I want to stop breathing gloriously so that the loving memory will not fade.”
In her Ruby Ruby Facebook guise she poses in a skimpy red swimsuit.
She is also wearing the same “LOL” top later seen in CCTV pictures from Kuala Lumpur Airport.
There are no clues as to how she earns her living, yet last month she was tagged at the V-Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her 64 Facebook friends include 27 Koreans, several of whom suddenly unfriended her after the hit.
Aishah called herself a masseuse after her arrest. Associates said she recently partied at the Kuala Lumpur Hard Rock Cafe.
North Korea has denied any involvement in Jong-nam’s death and accused Malaysia of fabricating evidence.
It said responsibility “rests with the government of Malaysia” and demanded an immediate release of the “innocent” women.
Its statement included a veiled threat that North Korea is a “nuclear weapons state”.
Aishah and Huong were last night still in custody alongside Malaysian caterer Muhammad Farid Bin Jalaluddin, 26, and North Korean Ri Jong Chol, 47.
North Korea is also accused of hiding two more murder suspects at its Malaysia embassy.
Hyon Kwang Song, 44, who works there, and 37-year-old North Korean airline employee Kim Uk are among eight suspects still wanted. Cop chief Khalid Abu Bakar fears four have already fled back to North Korea.
He said: “We hope the Korean embassy will co-operate. If not, we will compel them.”
TINY DROP KILLS
ONE drop of VX nerve agent on the skin can leave victims dying in agony within minutes.
The odourless toxin has been on a list of banned weapons of mass destruction for 20 years.
UK expert Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said yesterday: “VX is the most deadly chemical weapon ever produced. A pinhead amount is enough to destroy your nerves and kill you very quickly.”
VX was developed by military scientists after its effects were discovered during pesticide development.
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