Airport safe after nerve agent found

Suspect claims she was paid $90 for 'baby oil' prank on victim

KUALA LUMPUR - Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Terminal 2 was declared a "safe zone" on Sunday morning after inspection teams found no traces of a deadly poison that was used to kill a man from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

During the operation, special personnel wearing protective clothing and masks ran tests on kiosks, the medical clinic, washrooms, the information counter and a restaurant, all areas that had been visited by the victim and his suspected killers.

An odorless chemical, the VX nerve agent is an extremely powerful poison, and there had been fears that Terminal 2, which recorded a passenger traffic of more than 27 million last year, could pose a danger to passengers and employees.

The operation was conducted to ensure the terminal is "free from contamination of any hazardous materials," Selangor police chief Abdul Samah Mat told reporters after the operation.

He said the personnel involved in the operation was made up of a specialist team of police officers, fire and rescue experts and members of the Atomic Energy Licensing Board.

No traces of the nerve agent were found on the police officers, medical staff and airport employees who had been in contact with the DPRK man, Abdul Samah said.

He added that police are still investigating how two female suspects had survived despite using their bare hands to carry out the attack.

Abdul Samah also said police officers had raided a condominium related to four suspects who fled Malaysia on the day of the killing.

Abdul Samah said samples were taken from the house but did not elaborate, saying only that they had been sent for further analysis.

As for a DPRK embassy employee believed to be involved in the incident, Abdul Samah said the police will give him "a reasonable period" to show up, otherwise "we will move towards other provisions of the law that we have in this country to compel his presence."

The victim died on the way from the airport to hospital on Feb 13.

Malaysian police identified him as Kim Chol from the DPRK.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said embassy documents showed the man was Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un, but the claim was denied by the DPRK ambassador in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian woman suspect believed to be the one who carried out the attack told Indonesian officials on Saturday that she thought she was doing a prank using "baby oil".

Siti Aisyah, 25, from Serang, was allowed to meet Indonesian diplomats for the first time on Saturday at a detention center in Cyberjaya.

Andriano Erwin, Indonesia's deputy ambassador to Malaysia, told reporters after the meeting that Siti said she did not know any kind of plans involving an attack or an assassination of the man.

Siti also said she was paid 400 ringgit ($90) and told she was taking part in a reality television show, Andriano told the press.

Xinhua