Witness at Malaysia trial says 4 more suspects in Kim murder

A Malaysian police officer testified Thursday that the two women on trial in the murder of the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader were seen on airport security videos with two men believed to have provided the VX nerve agent used to kill him.

A courtroom sketch by artist Su Lin shows Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, right, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah, third from right, during their hearing at the court house in Shah Alam outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. (Su Lin via AP Photo)

Videos presented in court showed Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong walking in the airport with a man wearing a baseball cap. Separately, Indonesian suspect Siti Aisyah was seen meeting with another man also wearing a cap at an airport cafe just before the attack was carried out in a crowded departure terminal of the Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.

The faces of the men can't be seen clearly.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah is escorted by police after the hearing at the Shah Alam court house in Shah Alam outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017.  (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Chief investigating officer Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz identified the men as only Mr. Y and Mr. Chang.

He testified that the two men were believed to have smeared liquid on the women's hands before the pair smeared it on Kim Jong Nam's face.

Wan Azirul said the two men are among four people at large whom prosecutors accuse of having the common intention with the two women to murder Kim.

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, center, is escorted by police officers as she arrives for a court hearing at Shah Alam court house in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017.  (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

He named the two other at-large suspects as James, the suspected recruiter of Aisyah, and Hanamori, who is nicknamed grandpa or uncle and is suspected of giving directions to Mr. Y.

No further details about those four suspects were disclosed in open court, though Prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said outside court the four are believed to be North Koreans.

Huong and Aisyah are the only two suspects detained in the brazen assassination of Kim, an outcast from North Korea's ruling family who lived abroad in virtual exile for years. Both women have pleaded not guilty to murder charges that carry mandatory death sentences if they are convicted.

Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, center, is escorted by police officers as she arrives for a court hearing at Shah Alam court house in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. Security camera videos showed Wednesday Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader, being attacked at a Malaysian airport and the two suspects, including Doan. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Their defense lawyers have said Huong and Aisyah were duped by suspected North Korean agents into believing they were playing a harmless prank for a TV show. Prosecutors however, contend the women knew they were handling poison.

Security videos presented at the trial Wednesday showed the women hurrying off to separate washrooms after the alleged attack on Kim, with their hands held away from their bodies as if to avoid contact. Experts have testified that VX can be safely removed by careful hand-washing within 15 minutes of exposure.

A Royal Malaysian Police officer stands guard at Shah Alam court house where Kim Jong Nam murder trial is held in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. Security camera videos showed Wednesday Kim, the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader, being attacked at a Malaysian airport and the two suspects hurrying away afterward have been presented at their murder trial. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Aisyah's lawyer, Gooi Soon Seng, has told reporters previously that she was recruited in early January by a North Korean man known just as James to star in what he said were video prank shows. The lawyer said James had Aisyah go to malls, hotels and airports and rub oil or pepper sauce on strangers which he would film on his phone, and paid Aisyah between $100 and $200 for each prank.

James later introduced Aisyah to a man called Chang, who said he was the producer of Chinese video prank shows. On the day of Kim's death, Chang had pointed Kim out to Aisyah as the next target and put the substance in her hand, the lawyer has said.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, center, is escorted by police officers as she arrives for a court hearing at Shah Alam court house in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Police say Chang was actually Hong Song Hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing, while James was Ri Ji U, one of three other North Koreans who hid inside their country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur to avoid questioning. Those three were later allowed to fly home in exchange for nine Malaysians who were allowed to leave Pyongyang in a deal easing a diplomatic standoff that brought relations between the two countries to historic lows.

Malaysia has never directly accused North Korea, but South Korea's spy agency has said the attack was part of a five-year plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence over his younger brother but had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic rule.

The trial is to resume on Oct. 24 with a visit to the crime scene at the airport.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government has given final approval for a Texas-based marine robotics company to renew the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than a decade ago.

Cabinet ministers agreed to terms and conditions for a “no-find, no-fee” contract with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement Wednesday. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.

The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.

The final approval for a new search came three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.

Loke said his ministry will ink a contract with Ocean Infinity soon but didn’t provide details on the terms. The firm has reportedly sent a search vessel to the site and indicated that January-April is the best period for the search.

“The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370,” he said in a statement.

Family members of passengers who were on board the MH370 Malaysia Airline jet that went missing in 2014 leave after meeting Chinese Foreign Ministry officials in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese security personnel patrol the street near a meeting of family members of passengers who were on board the MH370 Malaysia Airline jet that went missing in 2014 in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" as he talks to media on the 11th anniversary of the jet going missing, Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese police officers monitor journalists gathered near a meeting of family members of passengers who were on board the MH370 Malaysia Airline jet that went missing in 2014 in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Jiang Hui, right, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" as he talks to media near other family members of victims Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

FILE - A Malaysian boy wipes his tears during a special prayer for the ill fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at a church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Joshua Paul,File)

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" as he talks to media on the 11th anniversary of the jet going missing, Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the missing MH370 Malaysia Airline passenger jet, wears a shirt "Remembering 239 Lives, MH370" checks his phone after talking to media on the 11th anniversary of the jet going missing Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)