Woman in Kim Killing May Have Thought It Was Prank

Family and former neighbors of the Indonesian woman suspected of involvement in the audacious killing of the North Korean leader's half brother in Malaysia are stunned by the arrest of the young mother who they say was a polite and quiet "nice girl." Siti Aisyah, 25, is one of three people arrested so far by Malaysian police for possible involvement in the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Nam, per AP. She has told police she thought she was participating in a prank, reports the Telegraph, citing an Indonesian media outlet. Between 2008 and 2011, Aisyah and her then-husband lived in a modest dwelling in western Jakarta. Her former father-in-law Tjia Liang Kiong, who lives in a nearby middle-class neighborhood and last saw Aisyah on Jan. 28, described her as a "very kind, polite and respectful person."

The three suspects—Aisyah, a woman carrying a Vietnamese passport and a man said to be Aisyah's Malaysian boyfriend—were arrested separately Wednesday and Thursday. The women were identified using surveillance videos from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where Kim Jong Nam was killed with what is believed to be poison. "Oh my God, how can I believe it," said one of Aisyah's former neighbors. "She's very nice with all the people here, she's so naive." Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla said he believed Aisyah was not aware that she was participating in a murder: "From the information we have received and also what was circulating in the media, what has happened in Kuala Lumpur is Kim Jong Nam and Aisyah were victims. Aisyah was a victim of some sort of manipulation or fraud." (More North Korea stories.)