Death by hanging. That’s the fate that could await two women accused of the murder of the half-brother of Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea.
The 46-year-old died en route to hospital on the morning of February 13, roughly 20 minutes after he was allegedly poisoned by Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, in the terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The pair are currently facing court in Malaysia, as the prosecution attempts to persuade a judge that they approached the man from behind and rubbed his face and eyes with VX – a nerve agent so deadly it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. So deadly that just one drop can be enough to kill.
But according to legal representatives for the women, they are far from calculated killers. They are ordinary people, seeking fame and money, duped by a group of men into believing they were part of a prank show, and oblivious to the fact they were, in fact, carrying out one of the most brazen assassination plots in living memory.
Kim Jong-nam ought to have been the Supreme Leader of North Korea. The eldest son of the late Kim Jong Il and his mistress, Song Hye-rim, he was considered heir apparent until he reportedly embarrased the regime by attempting to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001. Since then, he had been leading a secretive life, based in the gambling mecca of Macau.
As an occasional critic of his former homeland (a 2012 book claimed he predicted the collapse of his half-brother’s rule: “The Kim Jong-un regime will not last long,” he was quoted as saying), he lived under a false name and was reportedly under the protection of the Chinese government.