A WOMAN accused of murdering Kim Jong Un’s estranged half-brother was recruited in a Hanoi bar two months earlier, her lawyer has said.
Details about Doan Thi Huong, from Vietnam, are emerging at her trial for the first time since she was charged, along with Siti Aisyah from Indonesia.
They are accused of smearing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur’s airport on February 13 last year.
They denied murder when their trial began in Shah Alam on October 2, and are the only suspects in custody.
Prosecutors, however, have said four North Koreans who fled the country were also involved.
Lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told the court that Huong informed police after she was detained last year that she was introduced to a Korean man known as Mr Y by a Vietnamese bar owner in December 2016.
Mr Y has been identified in court as Ri Ji Hyon, one of the four North Korean suspects who fled Malaysia.
Huong said a former co-worker at a pub, Nguyen Bich Thuy, asked if she wanted to work for a Korean company as an actress in a “short movie or funny video”, according to her police statement read out by Teh.
She said she was introduced to Mr Y at the Hay Bar, which belonged to Thuy and her husband, and asked for a salary of $1000 (£717) a month.
Huong said she participated in her first prank outside Hanoi’s Opera House, where she was told to kiss a stranger on the cheek.
According to the testimony in her police statement, she was unsuccessful because the person shied away.
Teh told the court that Thuy had declined to come to Malaysia to testify but was questioned by Vietnamese police in March last year and made sworn statements that supported Huong’s claims to police.
The lawyer said Thuy told Vietnamese police that Mr Y, who speaks fluent Vietnamese, had initially wanted to recruit her but she declined due to family commitments.
She said she then remembered Huong loved to act and introduced her.
Huong, The youngest of five siblings, said in her police statement that her parents were farmers and she studied accounting at Hanoi Business and Technology University.
The 29-year-old also explained that she had worked in Hanoi as a waitress for around three years.
Teh was cross-examining chief police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz, who acknowledged he had not investigated Huong’s claims or contacted Vietnamese police to get details from Thuy.
The lawyer also accused Wan Azirul of being “a biased investigator, not independent and not interested in the truth”.
The hearing will resume on Thursday.
The two women face the death penalty if convicted, but not if they lacked intent to kill.
Prosecutors, though, contend the women knew they were handling poison.
Kim Jong Nam was the eldest son in the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding.
He had been exiled for years after falling out of favour - most recently in the Chinese territory of Macau.
He lost his status as the heir apparent when he was caught trying to enter Japan using a forged passport, in an attempt to visit Disneyland.
It is thought he was still perceived as a threat to the rule of Kim Jong Un.
Last week, US officials condemned North Korea for using banned chemical weapons to assassinate Kim.
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