The two female and four male suspects arrested so far in the killing of Kim Jong-nam are hired assassins who did not know each other before but thought they were brought together for the murder plot, according to a Malaysian security source. The six suspects, most of whom are thought to be sleeper agents, were all living in Kuala Lumpur and were recruited and briefed for the hit by a secret agent point. Siti Aisyah, an Indonesian suspect who was arrested had been living in Kuala Lumpur for several months and was working as a hostess in a nightclub in the Malaysian capital.

Both Siti and another female suspect, a Vietnamese woman, claimed to police they were persuaded to attack Mr Kim as part of a ‘prank’. Aisyah had been approached by a mysterious man at the nightclub where she worked in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and offered $100 to help with the stunt, according to Indonesian news-site, Kumpuran. The report suggested that Siti, an uneducated divorced mother of one son,  went ahead with the deal because she needed the money, but had no idea who Kim Jong-nam was. It claimed she did not know the other suspects in the case, and thought they were a film crew in a comedy reality television show.

Also the Malaysian police have detained a 25 year old Malaysian male as well. The detainee is believed to be the boyfriend of Aishyh. He is not thought to be involved in the case, but merely used to provide information leading to the arrest of Siti Aisyah. They were both arrested as police stepped up the hunt for a six-strong team of assassins believed to have been behind the death of Kim Jong-nam. Police said they were still searching for four men identified on CCTV at the airport who are believed to be North Koreans.
“One of the girls was told to hold a handkerchief on the face of the victim after he’d been sprayed by the other girl,” said a senior police source.
“She held it there for 10 seconds. She said she thought spraying him had been a ‘prank’.   
“We have already looked through the CCTV footage, hence we managed to arrest the taxi driver who had taken the two woman who carried out the assassination,” said the senior police official, who asked not to be named.

There have been no mentions of the death of Kim Jong-nam in the state media and there have been suggestions that ordinary North Koreans may not know their leader even had an older half-brother as it would call into question the legitimacy of the rule of their present leader. South Korea plans to inform them of the brutality of Kim Jong-un by using loudspeakers to broadcast news of his half-brother’s death over the border into the North.

Speculation continues to mount that Kim Jong-nam was killed on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who feared that he could become the rallying point for a coup against his regime. Kim had consistently denied having designs on the North Korean leadership. North Korean diplomats had met Kim Jong-nam in January and asked him to voluntarily go to Pyongyang. The report claimed that Kim Jong-un was concerned at reports that Kim Jong-nam was considering defecting on a permanent basis to South Korea or the United States, a move that could have significantly damaged the regime’s legitimacy and standing with its own people. Perhaps concerned at the rash of executions that his half-brother recently ordered, Kim Jong-nam asked for time to consider the request. It is not clear whether he had delivered an answer before his death. According to South Korean intelligence, Mr Kim wrote to Kim Jong-un in 2012 asking his half brother to spare his life and that of his family.

Speaking to the press Thursday, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the North Korean embassy in Malaysia had confirmed Kim Jong Nam’s identity. Kim had been traveling with two passports, under the name Kim Chol. North Korea has requested Kim’s body through the embassy and Malaysia would comply once the autopsy was complete, Hamidi said. He added that no next of kin had asked for the body. When asked about reports alleging North Korea’s involvement in Kim’s death, Hamidi said it was only speculation.

Kim was about to board a flight to Macau, a Chinese territory, to see his family, when he was killed. He was apparently attacked as he waited to board a plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to the Chinese territory of Macau to visit relatives.
“The deceased felt like someone grabbed or held his face from behind,” Selangor State Criminal Investigations Department Chief Fadzil Ahmat told Reuters. “He felt dizzy, so he asked for help at the (airport) counter.”
He was then taken to an airport clinic, which decided to send him to the hospital. He died en route.

Kim Jong Nam was born in 1971 to former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s favored mistress, Song Hye Rim. He was the North Korean dictator’s eldest son. Current leader Kim Jong Un was born years later to another mistress, Ko Yong Hui. He was for a time the most public of all Kim Jong Il’s sons but reportedly lost his father’s favor after using forged documents to try to visit Tokyo Disneyland in 2001. The brothers never met due to the North Korean practice of keeping heirs separate but Kim Jong Nam told Japanese author, Yoji Gomi that he didn’t think his younger sibling was up to leading the country.

After he left North Korea, the elder Kim sibling gained a reputation as an international playboy who was willing to speak openly about his family. His absence from his father’s funeral in 2011 fueled rumors he had been banished from North Korea. He spoke out against his father’s ‘military first’ police. He wanted North Korea to embrace economic reform and open its doors.

The New Telegraph