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Kim Jong-nam assassination suspects spent time in China before poisoning 'prank': reports

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Two women suspected of poisoning Kim Jong-nam, the 46-year-old playboy elder half-brother of North Korea's leader, had apparently lived in China for up to three months before the assassination, according to the China Press, a Chinese language newspaper in Malaysia.

The newspaper reported that Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 29, were possibly duped by a spy ring into attacking Mr Kim in the busy departure hall of Kuala Lumpur's low-cost terminal last Monday.

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Kim Jong Nam: second arrest made

Malaysia has detained a second woman suspected in the apparent assassination of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to the state news agency Bernama.

However Siti's mother in Indonesia told Fairfax Media her daughter is a "simple country girl" who had been working in a clothing shop in Batam, an Indonesian island near Singapore.

Indonesian officials say immigration records show her last departure from Indonesia was on February 2 when she travelled from Batam to Johor, a state in southern Malaysia.

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The China Press reported that the two women, who knew each other, worked as female escorts when they were in China for between one and three months.

The report, which has not been confirmed by police, said the women repeatedly rehearsed a "prank" to use a handkerchief to cover a person's face.

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It said a mysterious man also travelled with the women several times to foreign countries, including Vietnam and South Korea, to gain their trust.

Indonesia's vice-president Jusuf Kalla, told reporters on Friday he was confident Siti was not a North Korean agent, saying if she was she would have disappeared by now.

Police arrested Siti in a Kuala Lumpur hotel early Thursday after being led there by her 26-year-old Malaysian boyfriend.

"Why would she go and stay in a hotel in the same city, so close to the airport," Mr Jusuf was reported as saying by Detik.com.

On Monday at the airport one woman stood in front of Mr Kim to distract him while another came from behind and dabbed a handkerchief believed to contain poison in his face.

Images of the women were captured on CCTV cameras.

Mr Kim became unwell and died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.

Malaysian police are hunting four men believed to be North Korean spies who they believe orchestrated the assassination.

They believe the men are still in Malaysia and authorities have increased security at border exit points.

In the latest twist to the murder, Malaysia said Mr Kim's body will not be released until his family has provided DNA samples, despite a request from Pyongyang that it be handed over immediately to North Korean officials.

Malaysia also ignored a North Korean objection to an autopsy being carried out.

Results of forensic tests on samples taken from the body have not been made public.

South Korea has pointed the finger of blame at North Korea, citing a "standing order" from Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader and Kim Jong-nam's half-brother to kill him.

Celebrations in Pyongyang to mark the birthday of Kim Jong-il, the late father of both men, have gone ahead without reference to the death.

Yoji Gomi, a Tokyo-based journalist who wrote a book about Kim Jong-nam told Associated Press that Mr Kim opposed his family's rule of the pariah state and wanted economic reforms.

Mr Gomi said Mr Kim, who lived in Macau with a second wife and a son, appeared nervous when he interviewed him in 2011.

"He must have been aware of the danger, but I believe he still wanted to convey his views to Pyongyang via the media," Mr Gomi said.

"He was sweating all over his body and seemed uncomfortable when he responded to my questions … he was probably worried about the impact of his comments and expressions," he said.

"The thought now gives me a pain in my heart."

North Korean spies have a long history of assassinations and kidnappings in foreign countries.

One 14-year-old Japanese girl was kidnapped to teach Japanese to North Korean spies, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In October 2012, South Korean prosecutors said a North Korean man detained as a spy admitted involvement in a plot to stage a hit-run accident targeting Kim Jong-nam in China in 2010.

North Korea's main spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), has had agents infiltrate Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for decades, according to Malaysian intelligence officials quoted by The Star Asia News Network.

Agents disguise themselves working in jobs like engineers or run restaurants, it said.

Malaysia is one of a dwindling number of countries that have close relations with North Korea, which is under global sanctions over its nuclear program and missile launches.

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