Malaysia's attorney general says two women arrested in connection with the killing of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be charged Wednesday with murder.
The two suspects, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, have said they thought they were participating in a television prank show.The charges they will face carry the death penalty.
Kim Jong Nam died February 13 shortly after two women smeared what Malaysian authorities say was VX nerve agent on his face at a Kuala Lumpur airport.The attack was captured on the airport's security cameras, which showed Kim talking with police and being taken to a medical unit.
A third person, a North Korean, is also in police custody.Authorities have also identified seven more North Koreans as suspects wanted for questioning.
North Korea's government has not said positively that the man killed was Kim Jong Nam.A high-level delegation that included Ri Tong Il, North Korea's former deputy ambassador to the United Nations, traveled Tuesday to Kuala Lumpur to seek the return of the body and the release of the North Korean who is being held.
Kim Jong Nam was the older estranged brother of Kim Jong Un.Kim Jong Nam was once considered the heir apparent to lead North Korea, but he fell out of favor with their father, the late dictator Kim Jong Il, after a failed 2001 attempt to enter Japan on a forged passport to visit Disneyland.
Since then, Kim Jong Nam had lived in virtual exile, primarily in the Chinese territory of Macau.
