Two 'assassins' reveal all: Women arrested over nerve gas killing of Kim Jong-nam tell police they were 'good time girls hired in Malaysian massage parlours for £72 and told to carry out baby oil prank'
- Two women assassinated Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13
- Malaysian police say Kim Jong Un's half brother had nerve agent on his face VX
- Suspected attackers, Indonesian woman and Vietnamese woman, in custody
- They are understood to have admitted they had worked in massage parlours
- Alleged assassin Siti Aishah said she was paid to put 'baby oil' in victim's face
In the seedy, sex-driven, underworld beneath Malaysia's world-wide image of respectability, two 'good time girls' made easy pickings for North Korean agents looking for 'patsies' to commit a murder.
Today the women, Doan Thi Huong, from Vietnam, and Siti Aishah, from Indonesia - both in their mid to late 20s - continued to be interrogated by Malaysian police about their roles in the murder of Kim Jong-nam who died after nerve agent was thrown in his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 13 February.
They are understood to have admitted they had worked in massage parlours and had also escorted wealthy Asian men around town, ending up in their bedrooms - and they made easy pickings for North Korean agents looking for women who could assume harmless identities for the deadly roles they were needed for.
Malaysian police said two women allegedly involved in the assassination - Siti Aishah (left) and Doan Thi Huong (right) - knew the poisoning wasn't a 'TV prank'
Police are understood to be looking at preparing murder charges against the women despite their agreeing to tell everything about the men they met, the names they knew, and the promises that were made to them if they carried off their deadly mission of murdering Kim, the estranged elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Aishah has already admitted that she worked in a massage parlour, while Huong has told police that she earned money for her family back in Vietnam by escorting men in night clubs and being paid well for her services.
But, aside from the serious charges they now face - despite their claims that they thought they had been recruited to play a part in a jokey TV show in which members of the public would have a liquid sprayed in their faces - Huong has an added reason to regret.
Suspected assassin Doan Thi Huong can be seen wearing a shirt with 'LOL' emblazoned on the front
Alleged aassasin Doan Thi Huong had a Facebook account under the name Ruby Ruby and posted pictures of herself wearing a revealing red swim suit
Alleged aassasin Doan Thi Huong worked as an escort, taking wealthy men around town
She has fallen sick, police revealed, because she ingested some of the 'harmless' liquid she and Aishah were involved in spraying in Kim's face at Kuala Lumpur airport.
She has been vomiting and refusing food, sources said, because the liquid has been identified as a deadly nerve agent known as VX. Although she is not in any danger to her life, it is possible that she did not wash her hands properly after the airport incident.
Just where the deadly chemical came from - whether it was brought into the country by a North Korean agent or was produced locally - was still being investigated today but suspicion that it might have been produced in Kuala Lumpur has been suggested by The Star newspaper.
It reported that a hazardous material team had gone to an apartment in the city, understood to be where North Korean chemist, Ri Jong-chol, had been living, and had seized various chemicals, several pairs of gloves and shoes.
Malaysian experts are now trying to ascertain whether the deadly chemical used to kill Kim was made up of more than the nerve agent VX. But as far as the two arrested women were concerned, they continue to claim they did not know its dangers.
Aishah has told police that she believed the liquid was just baby oil.
Indonesia's deputy ambassador to Malaysia, Andreano Erwin, who visited Aishah today, told reporters today that she had been paid the equivalent of £72 to take part in the 'prank'.
'She didn't know it was poison. That is the answer from her,' he said.
Kim Jong Nam died on February 13 and now police say a nerve agent was found on his face
Shocking pictures show Kim Jong-Nam slumped in a chair having been poisoned
'She only said in general that somebody had asked her to do it and she didn't know what would happened next.
'She mentioned some names but I did not recognise them. The names were very general…James, Jang, that's it.'
He said Aishah had told him that the men who had approached her were 'maybe Japanese or Korean.'
Eight North Koreans are wanted in connection with the murder, four of whom are suspected of having already escaped back to Pyongyang, but police are hoping for a 'big catch' with the arrest of a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy.
They have ordered 44-year-old Hyon Kwang Son, a second secretary at the embassy, to co-operate voluntarily with police - and he has been given 'reasonable time' to come forward.
Police chief Abdul Samah Mat said that if he failed to co-operate a warrant would be issued for his arrest.
Malaysian police Saturday told the public they would do everything possible to ensure there was no risk from the lethal VX nerve agent used to assassinate Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
People were worried about the use of the highly toxic agent developed for chemical warfare, state police chief Abdul Samah Mat said, after the audacious February 13 attack by two assassins at Kuala Lumpur airport.
HOW A SINGLE DROP OF MAN-MADE VX KILLS IN MINUTES
As Malaysian toxicologists reveal that the banned nerve agent VX was used in the airport assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, here are some key questions and answers about the deadly weapon of mass destruction.
What is it?
Code-named by the US scientists who mass produced it, VX is an organophosphate compound and one of the deadliest chemical agents ever manufactured.
Stockpiled by the US in huge quantities during the Cold War, VX is perhaps 10 times as powerful as the Sarin toxin.
Odourless and clear when pure, it has the appearance of motor oil and is stable enough to be transported. It is also hard to detect, an advantage for a would-be assassin.
Downsides are that it lingers, potentially contaminating areas for long periods of time.
'It can kill an adult weighing 70 kilogrammes with just five milligrammes on the skin,' said Yosuke Yamasato, former principal of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Chemical School.
'It's unbelievable that the executors of the crime used it with their bare hands - they must have not known the material was VX.'
Code-named by the US scientists who mass produced it, VX is an organophosphate compound and one of the deadliest chemical agents ever manufactured (file picture)
What does it do?
It strikes the nervous system fast. A high dose can kill in minutes when inhaled, as the blood vessels in the lungs rapidly spread the compound into the bloodstream and vital organs.
Nerve agents over-stimulate glands and muscles, leading them to quickly fatigue and become unable to sustain breathing.
Symptoms depend on dosage and whether it is inhaled or introduced through the skin - the slower form of poisoning.
Exposure to low doses is survivable.
But more serious contamination is fast-acting and often gruesome. People exposed to the toxin may become short of breath and nauseous in minutes, or at a higher dose experience seizures, heart failure and a total shut down of the respiratory system.
There are antidotes but treatment must be immediate. US soldiers carried kits to inject themselves with antidote during the first Iraq War.
Nerve agent VX is odorless, tasteless and highly toxic, and is manufactured for chemical warfare
Where does it come from?
The compound was first created in a British laboratory in the early 1950s. But American scientists honed its potency during the Cold War arms race with the Soviet Union.
Tens of thousands of tonnes of VX were churned out at Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana - a stockpile that was finally destroyed in the late 1980s as the Cold War ended.
Accidental leaks have been reported in the US and Japan. It has been deployed as a war weapon infrequently but with devastating effect.
Residues found on site suggest Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may have used VX among a cocktail of chemical weapons he rained down on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 killing at least 5,000 people.
In 1994 VX was used by Japan's Aum cult to murder an office worker in Osaka, and in the attempted murder of two other people.
Legal status?
VX is listed a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
Under the international Chemical Weapons Convention 1997, countries are allowed limited stockpiles for research purposes only but must declare them and are obliged to progressively destroy their supplies.
'North Korea is not a signatory to CWC, so it's no surprise if it possesses VX,' Satoshi Numazawa, professor of toxicology at Showa University, told AFP.
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