A Vietnamese woman who spent more than two years in a Malaysian prison on suspicion of killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was released from jail and returned to Vietnam on Friday.
Doan Thi Huong, a 30-year-old Vietnamese woman accused of killing the half brother of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has been freed and returned to Vietnam after serving 27 months in a Malaysian prison. Huong, along with 27-year-old Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah were accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong-nam’s face in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017. He died within 20 minutes. Both women say they were tricked into carrying out the attack by North Korean operatives, who told them they were playing a prank for a Japanese comedy show. After Aisyah was released in March, Huong accepted a deal with Malaysian prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing bodily harm, receiving a standard sentence reduction and credit for time served while awaiting trial. Police have identified at least seven North Koreans suspected to be involved in the killing but none of them were ever brought to trial, according to the New York Times. The North Korean government has denied any involvement in the killing, but Kim Jong Un is widely believed to have ordered it.
