The Indonesian woman who is one of the suspects in the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother said she was paid $90 (£72) for what she believed was a prank, an Indonesian official has said.

Siti Aisyah told authorities she did not want her parents to see her in custody, said Andriano Erwin, Indonesia’s deputy ambassador to Malaysia, one day after Malaysia revealed that VX nerve agent was used in the bizarre killing of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur airport.



“She doesn’t want her family to see her condition,” Erwin said after a 30-minute meeting with Aisyah. “She only delivered a message through us to her father and mother not to be worried and take care of their health.”

Malaysian police said they planned to sweep the airport for toxic chemicals following the public poisoning of Kim on 13 February, which appeared to be a well-planned hit.

Kim was dead within hours of the attack in which two women came up behind him and appeared to smear something on to his face before walking away in separate directions.

Malaysian police said they had been trained to go immediately to the toilets to wash their hands.

Aisyah, 25, has said previously that she was duped into the attack, but Malaysian police say she and the other female suspect, a Vietnamese woman who also is in custody, knew what they were doing.

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The revelation that the extremely powerful VX nerve agent killed Kim has boosted speculation that North Korea had dispatched a hit squad to Malaysia. An amount no smaller than a few grains of salt can kill, and after the odourless chemical has been inhaled, swallowed or absorbed, it can cause symptoms from blurred vision to a headache. Enough exposure leads to convulsions, paralysis, respiratory failure and death. The poison was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory, experts say, and is banned under international treaties. North Korea, a prime suspect in the case, never signed that treaty and has spent decades developing a complex chemical weapons programme.

Though Kim Jong-nam, who had been living abroad for years, was not an obvious political threat to his sibling, he may have been seen as a potential rival in the country’s dynastic dictatorship.

Malaysia has not directly accused the North Korean government of being behind the attack, but officials have said four North Korean men provided the two women with poison. The four fled Malaysia shortly after the killing.

On Saturday, police confirmed that a raid earlier in the week on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur was part of the investigation. Senior police official Abdul Samah Mat, who is handling the investigation, did not specify what authorities found there but said the items were being tested for traces of chemicals.

Airport officials and police have insisted the facility is safe. Samah Mat said police were tracing the suspects’ steps to ensure public safety. Asked if the airport cleanup had started, he said: “It is already in process.”