A woman charged with the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has been released from prison. She had been in custody for two years before charges against her were dropped.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/V. Thian
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Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese woman who was accused of assassinating Kim Jong Nam, was released from a Malaysian prison on Friday.
Huong and Indonesian Siti Aisyah were put on trial for the killing of Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Nam died in 2017 after having his face smeared with a banned VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
Charges dropped
The women were charged with colluding with four North Korean agents to murder Kim. They have always denied involvement in the murder, saying they were paid to carry out what they thought was a prank for a reality TV show. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia shortly after Kim's death.
Huong was expected to head to an immigration office in Putrajaya before flying to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, on Friday evening.
North Korea's long killing streak
A South Korean media report has claimed a top Pyongyang nuclear envoy was killed — but he turned up on TV days later. It would not have been the first killing from the top, but it turned out to be another false report.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Living in the crosshairs
High-profile defector Hwang Jang Yop survived numerous assassination attempts before dying of natural causes at the age of 87. Hwang, who had been one of the leading ideologues of the North's isolationist regime, escaped to South Korea in 1997. Just months before his death in 2010, Seoul authorities arrested two North Korean military officers over one of many plots to kill him.
Image: AP
Uncle not 'fed to the dogs'
The execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle Jang Song Thaek, once the second most powerful man in the isolated country, sent shock waves beyond North Korea's borders. Many media outlets wrongly reported that he was fed to hungry dogs, as punishment for his "betrayal" of the ruling family. In reality, he was shot, according to Pyongyang officials and South Korean intelligence.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Rumors of brutality
In 2015, Seoul's security services reported that North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol was executed by an anti-aircraft gun. However, National Intelligence Service (NIS) soon appeared to backtrack from the report, saying that Hyon might still be alive. Reports of other brutal executions, involving artillery shells and flamethrowers, have also been difficult to confirm.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Poisoned needle
North Korean defector and well-known dissident Park Sang Hak was also targeted by a Pyongyang-linked hitman. In 2011, South Korean authorities arrested a former North Korean commando over the plot to assassinate Park with a poison-tipped needle.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
Removing a rival?
The estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un was reportedly poisoned by two women at a Kuala Lumpur airport. While details remained sketchy, it was widely believed the killers were sent by the North Korean regime. The 46-year-old Kim Jong Nam had been living abroad after falling from grace in 2001 for visiting Disneyland in Tokyo.
