The trial of two women accused of killing the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to resume on Monday (March 11), 6 months after a judge ruled there was sufficient evidence for their involvement in the murder. Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong, 30, and Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, 27, were captured on CCTV cameras smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam's face at a Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. VX, or Venomous Agent X, is a deadly poison that was developed for military use for chemical warfare, and is classified as a weapon of mass destruction. The women are expected to provide their testimony after a judge ordered in August 2017 that the trial proceed to the defence stages, ruling there were sufficient grounds to believe they had engaged in a "well-planned conspiracy" with four other North Korean suspects still at large. Both women have maintained their innocence, claiming they believed they were carrying out a prank for a reality TV show in exchange for money, and that they had been tricked by handlers who were North Korean agents. However, prosecutors have argued that the duo are trained assassins who were aware of the toxicity of the substance they were handling, pointing to how both suspects headed to separate bathrooms immediately after the attack. If convicted, both women face death by hanging. The Malaysian government is considering abolishing capital punishment for all crimes, however it is uncertain if the changes will be implemented before the sentence is handed down.
