Pictured: The woman suspected of murdering Kim Jong-un's brother poses for a Facebook selfie in a 'LOL' shirt - just like the one she wore for his 'assassination'
Doan Thi Huong, who is being held in Malaysia over the killing of Kim Jong-nam in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, can be seen wearing a shirt with 'LOL' emblazoned on the front.
A similar white top was worn by a woman shown in CCTV footage from the terminal minutes after Jong-nam was poisoned to death.
Separate photos, in a Facebook account under the name of Ruby Ruby, show her posing in a revealing red swim suit and wearing a black dress with floral patterns.
Suspected assassin Doan Thi Huong can be seen wearing a shirt with 'LOL' emblazoned on the front. A similar white top was worn by a woman shown in CCTV footage from the terminal minutes after Kim Jong-nam was poisoned to death
They emerged amid unsubstantiated claims that the 28-year-old may have appeared on Vietnam's version of the TV talent show Pop Idol in June.
Footage shows the woman - contestant number 67816 - singing quietly before being interrupted halfway through her performance by one one of three judges and then walking off stage. She left the competition in the first round.
The 28-year-old had posted to Facebook under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, 18-year-old niece, Dinh Thi Quyen and photographer Keow wee Loong who knows a friend of Huong.
Her profile picture shows Huong wearing a red cut-out swimsuit at a pool.
Other photos are selfies taken in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a few days before Kim Jong Nam was attacked at the city's airport by two women who rubbed his face with apparent poison.
The account's first post was made December 14 and the last was February 11 from an area near the airport.
Many of her 65 Facebook friends are men, including several South Koreans.
A second Facebook account under the name 'Bella Tron Tron Bella' - also containing pictures of Huong - had a link to Vietnam Idol's page.
It has since emerged that she was renowned for her fashion, funky hairstyles and foreign boyfriends, say family members shocked at the link between their poor rice-farming village and a crime that has gripped the world.
Doan Thi Huong gained notoriety last week after Malaysian police shared CCTV images of her wearing a top emblazoned with 'LOL' - shortly after the February 13 assassination of Jong-Nam.
The unlikely connection between a country girl from a poor rural backwater 90 miles outside Hanoi to a high-profile assassination, has added another layer of intrigue to a crime that has captivated with its echoes of Cold War-era conspiracy and spycraft.
Houng's arrest has caused fevered interest inside Vietnam, despite attempts by security officials in the communist nation to control the information flow.
Her family recall a girl who broke the conservative conventions of Quan Phuong village with her dyed hair, edgy clothes and foreign boyfriends since she left aged 18 apparently to study.
'At first we doubted it was her when we saw the picture with the 'LOL' shirt,' stepmother Nguyen Thi Vy told AFP.
'But when someone bought a clearer picture here, we knew it was our Huong,' she said.
'If she committed the crime, she has to suffer, we can't do anything... but I think she must have been set up by someone.'
On Wednesday he said CCTV footage showed they were 'very aware' the substance they wiped on Kim's face was toxic, adding the pair had practised.
But when she returned home during the Tet lunar new year festival in late January she gave no hint of being mixed up in serious criminality, locals said.
Neighbour Maria Nguyen described Huong as someone who stood out in the small village of dozens of homes encircled by paddy fields.
'She has always been very fashionable, with colourful hair,' she said. 'Every Tet she would come back home with some different (foreign) man,' she added.
Vietnamese social media has filled gaps in Huong's history with conjecture and rumours.
As well as the unsubstantiated images from the television talent show, others have linked to a YouTube channel apparently showing the same young woman kissing a famous social media prankster.
Huong was last seen by her family just a few weeks ago during Tet, arriving broke and leaving after a few days.
'She did not have a penny in her pocket. I gave her some money to buy a bus ticket,' her stepmother added.
Huong's brother Doan Van Binh said he knew little about his sister's life after she left the village.
'I encouraged her to study and earn money so that her future would be good,' he said.
'My family is very sad. We all thought she was in a good place,' he added.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar says help has been sought from Interpol to issue an alert for the four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the same day Kim Jong Nam was killed.
It is not known what Interpol can do, as the four are believed to be back in Pyongyang and North Koreas is not a member of Interpol.
Khalid also said there were no plans to send officers to Macau to collect a DNA sample from Kim Jong Nam's family. Kim had a home in Macau and was about to fly there when he was killed.
Malaysia police have not directly pinpointed North Korea as being behind the death of Kim Jong Nam, but they are searching for several North Korean suspects over his killing at a Malaysian airport this month.
The Korean Jurists Committee said in a statement Thursday that the Malaysian investigation lacks fairness and has been influenced by the South Korean government, which blames Pyongyang for the death.
The North has not acknowledged that the dead man is Kim Jong Nam. Thursday's statement described the man only as a North Korean citizen bearing a diplomatic passport.
Yesterday North Korean diplomats called for the immediate release of the two 'innocent women' arrested in connection with the apparent poisoning last week.
A statement released Wednesday by North Korea's embassy in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the police account of Kim Jong Nam's death - that the women had coated their hands with toxins and then rubbed them on his face as he stood in front of a ticketing kiosk at a Kuala Lumpur airport.
If the poison was on their hands, the statement asked 'then how is it possible that these female suspects could still be alive?' One of the women is Indonesian, the other is Vietnamese.
Kim Jong Un's half brother was killed by a NERVE AGENT: Malaysian police say 'North Korean assassins' used deadly banned chemical weapon - but how they avoided being killed themselves is a mystery
The estranged half brother of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un was assassinated with a deadly nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police revealed today.
Kim Jong Nam, 45, whose sibling denies plotting his murder, had traces of chemical weapon VX, which is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations, on his face and his eyes.
Malaysian authorities are now rushing to decontaminate their capital's main airport 11 days after female assassins attacked their victim with the deadly nerve agent.
A leading regional security expert told AFP today that if it is a political murder it would be easy to smuggle a small amount of VX into Malaysia in a diplomatic pouch, which are not subject to regular customs checks.
Police said one of two women suspected of the killing was vomiting profusely afterwards and experts says that his murderers were probably wearing thin gloves and washed their hands afterwards to avoid killing themselves.
VX and Sarin was used by a Japanese religious cult who killed a dozen commuters on Tokyo's underground rail network in 1995. Saddam Hussein was accused of using it on Kurds in the 1980s and Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria had stockpiled huge amounts before it was taken away in 2014.
CCTV footage of his final minutes shows one female assassin wiping a fast-acting poison on his Kim Jong Nam's face from behind.
Other shots show him stumbling, wiping his face, and seeking help from people while gesturing to his eyes before being escorted to a clinic. He later slumped in a chair after he suffered a seizure and died on February 13.
Traces of VX, considered one of the five most deadly chemical weapons of war, were detected on swabs of the dead man's face and eyes.
Matthew Meselson, a professor of biochemistry at Harvard, told the Washington Post that VX is quite easy to produce.
The board member of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation said: #A good organic chemist could synthesize VX relatively easily. You could get the ingredients and make it in a couple of days, and if you make it pure, it's quite stable'.
Police have not said how the women were able to apply the nerve agent to his face and also avoid becoming ill themselves.
Detectives said earlier that the two attackers rubbed a liquid on Kim Jong Nam's face before walking away and quickly washing their hands. He sought help from airport staff but died before he reached the hospital.
VX nerve agent, or S-2 Diisoprophylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate, is chemical weapon classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
The seeming contradiction of a poison that could kill him quickly but not sicken the attackers has stumped outside experts.
Bruce Goldberger, a leading toxicologist who heads the forensic medicine division at the University of Florida, said some protective measures must have been in place if the women handled the substance without gloves.
'It's also possible that the toxin was encapsulated, then activated when applied to the skin,' he said before the latest police statement. 'As additional information is provided to the media by the police, it seems more likely that a new or modified chemical or biological agent was utilized in the attack.'
Malaysia's police chief said last night that investigators want to question a North Korean embassy official about Kim Jong Nam's death, saying he should cooperate if he has nothing to hide despite having diplomatic immunity.
A leading regional security expert told AFP it would not have been difficult to smuggle VX into Malaysia in a diplomatic pouch, which are not subject to regular customs checks.
North Korea has previously used the pouches 'to smuggle items including contraband and items that would be subjected to scrutiny if regular travel channels were used', said Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.
Khalid has previously said the woman who ambushed Kim from behind clearly knew she was carrying out a poison attack, dismissing claims that she thought she was taking part in a TV prank.
'The lady was moving away with her hands towards the bathroom,' Khalid said earlier this week.
'She was very aware that it was toxic and that she needed to wash her hands.'
The leaked CCTV footage shows Kim asking for help from airport staff, who direct him to a clinic, after he is ambushed.
Police said he suffered a seizure and died before he reached hospital.
Detectives are holding three people - women from Indonesia and Vietnam, and a North Korean man - but want to speak to seven others, four of whom are believed to have fled to Pyongyang.
One man wanted for questioning, who is believed to be still in Malaysia, is senior North Korean embassy official Hyon Kwang Song.
Police have acknowledged that his diplomatic status prevents them from questioning him unless he surrenders himself.
However, a North Korean official outside Pyongyang's Kuala Lumpur embassy said Friday Malaysia had not submitted a request to speak to Hyon, despite the police chief earlier saying the embassy would be asked for assistance.
Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said police have also asked Interpol to issue an alert for four North Korean men who left Malaysia the same day Kim Jong Nam was attacked by the two women.
The four men are believed to be back in North Korea, but police also want to question three other people still in Malaysia, including Hyon Kwang Song, a second secretary at the North Korean Embassy.
'The foreign officer has got immunity so we have to follow protocol,' Khalid told reporters. 'If you have nothing to hide, you don't have to be afraid. You should cooperate.'
Khalid acknowledged that Malaysia would not be able to question Hyon if the embassy exercises its immunity privileges.
North Korea's official, state-controlled media mentioned the case for the first time Thursday, saying Malaysia's investigation was full of 'holes and contradictions' without acknowledging the victim was Kim Jong Nam.
NERVE AGENT VX - A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION
Nerve agent VX is odorless, tasteless and highly toxic, and is manufactured for chemical warfare.
It is listed as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. Under the international Chemical Weapons Convention 1997, countries must declare stockpiles of VX and are obliged to progressively destroy their supplies.
But experts say the agent is stable, easy to transport and difficult to detect with regular airport security measures.
The only known use of VX is as a chemical warfare agent and the US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes it as the 'most potent' of all nerve agents and much more toxic than sarin when absorbed through the skin.
All nerve agents cause their toxic effects by preventing the proper operation of an enzyme that acts as the body's 'off switch' for glands and muscles.
Without that switch, the glands and muscles are constantly being stimulated, and eventually tire and become unable to sustain breathing.
VX was used by Japan's Aum cult in the 1994 murder of an office worker in Osaka, and in the attempted murder of two other people.
The doomsday cult led by guru Shoko Asahara, used sarin nerve gas for a deadly attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.
Asahara was sentenced to death for the subway murders as well as producing deadly substances, including sarin and VX.
The report from KCNA largely echoed past comments by North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia, but the publication of at least some news inside North Korea could be a sign of its concern over growing international speculation that Pyongyang dispatched a hit squad to kill Kim Jong Nam.
Long estranged from North Korea's leadership, Kim Jong Nam had lived outside the country for years, staying in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.
The two suspected attackers, an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman, are in custody.
Doan Thi Huong, 28, is one of the women being held in Malaysia over the killing of Kim Jong-nam. She posted a Facebook selfie online just days before the assassination and can be seen wearing a shirt with 'LOL' emblazoned on the front.
A similar white top was worn by a woman shown in CCTV footage from the terminal minutes after Kim Jong-nam was killed.
Separate photos, in a Facebook account under the name of Ruby Ruby, show her posing in a revealing red swim suit and wearing a black dress with floral patterns.
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