Kim Jong-Nam murder: Vietnamese suspect possibly victim of a set-up - Yonhap

By VnExpress March 22, 2017 | 03:54 am PT

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong leaves a Sepang court after she was charged with the murder of North Korea Kim Jong Nam, in Malaysia March 1, 2017. Photo by Reuters

A new source points the finger at Ri Ji-Hyon, a North Korean man still at large.

The source claimed that Ri Ji-Hyon, a 33-year-old North Korean suspect in the Kim murder, had tricked Doan Thi Huong, the Vietnamese suspect, into committing the crime.

The Vietnamese woman arrested in connection with the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at an airport in Malaysia may have been the vicitm of a set-up, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted an anonymous source as saying Wednesday.

Malaysian police say Ri is one of four North Korean men who left Malaysia on March 13, the day Kim Jong Nam was murdered. Interpol issued a red notice, the closest thing to an international arrest warrant, for these men on March 17.

On March 1, Huong, 28, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, were charged with the murder of Kim Jong-Nam after his assassination at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Both are facing the death penalty.

Police accuse the pair of having wiped VX nerve agent, a weapon of mass destruction and banned around the world, on Kim’s face at the airport on February 13.

The women claim they thought they were merely taking part in a prank video.

Huong will stand trial on April 13.

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