Women accused of murdering Kim Jong-nam plead not guilty in Malaysian court

The two women accused of murdering North Korean leader Kim Jong un's half-brother Kim Jong-Nam have pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in Malaysia. Doan Thi Huong, 29, from Vietnam and Siti Aisyah, 25, from Indonesia are suspected to have killed Jong-Nam at the Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13.

Huong and Aisyah appeared in a Kuala Lumpur court on Monday, October 2, morning and were in handcuffs and wore bulletproof vests, according to AFP. After their charges were read out to them, they pleaded not guilty through their interpreters.

The two women are said to have rubbed the banned VX nerve agent on JongNam'ss face. Jong-nam was at the airport waiting to board a flight to Macau, but died about 20 minutes after the attack. However, the duo has said that they were tricked into the act by North Korean agents. They have claimed that they took part in the process as they were told it was a prank for a hidden camera for a TV show.

Their defence lawyers have also said that Huong and Aisyah are innocent and the real killers have in fact left Malaysia.

Malaysia had named many North Koreans who could have been responsible for the attack, but they are all said to have fled the country after the attack on Jong-nam, reported BBC. This also caused quite some tensions between Malaysia and the recluse nation and they had expelled one another's ambassadors.

Meanwhile, it has been earlier speculated that the assassination was carried out by the North Korean government itself as Jong-nam is not only known to have had a fallout with the regime, he was also accused of advocating reform in the reclusive nation.

In December 2013, Jong-un also executed his uncle Jang Song-thaek saying he was a counter-revolutionary who planned a coup. Several of his family members have also reportedly been killed.

All this is often seen as the North Korean leader's way of making sure that his son takes over the regime after him. It was earlier thought that Jong-un had two children and was known that the younger one was a daughter. However, the gender of the first one wasn't exactly known. But it has now come to light that his wife and former pop star Ri Sol-ju also gave birth to their third child in February and the couple, in fact, has three children. One of them is a son who also is named "Kim."

In all probability, Kim will be the one taking over the throne not just because he is Jong-un's son but the seven-year-old is apparently also being groomed to take over the regime once he is old enough, according to Express UK.

The current leader has also made sure that anyone who poses a threat to him or could take over the reins is eliminated.