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Inside The Training Regimes For Female Spies In North Korea

Inside The Training Regimes For Female Spies In North Korea

This sounds like something from an Ian Fleming novel.

Patrick Hulbert

Patrick Hulbert

In case you're struggling to keep up with the latest revelations after North Korea's Supreme Leader's half-brother was reportedly murdered by North Korean spies with a fountain pen which sprayed a toxic substance (or is it a cloth laden with poison?), both of the female suspects implicated in the murder have explained that they thought it was for a prank show.

Seriously.

Indonesian citizen by her papers, Siti Aisyah, aged 25, and Vietnamese citizen, again by her papers, Doan Thi Huong, 28, claim they were paid a few dollars every time they squirted water in the face of an unsuspecting victim for what she thought was a popular TV programme at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim, left, at a press conference today. Credit: PA

Then, on around the fourth occasion, they claim one of them was handed the substance again to squirt, told to do it to a man over from her (Jong-nam), and the water was replaced by a lethal substance.

Jong-nam has been involved in a number of failed assassination attempts in the past. In 2011, North Korean spies reportedly tried to kill him, which ended in a shoot-out between the spies and his bodyguards.

Jong-un was reportedly worried that were he in North Korea, he would pose a legitimate threat to his rule as an older half-brother. Jong-nam is the son of Song Hye-rim, who was an actress and 'favourite mistress' of Jong-il.

Jong-nam initially fell out of favour with his father when he was arrested at Tokyo Narita airport in 2001 on a fake Dominican Republic passport. He was detained in China and explained his reason for the visit was to enjoy Disneyland.

Jong-nam was assissinated on Monday. Credit: PA

Today police have said they are looking for four North Korean men who fled the country while they still question both of the women. Aisyah is a spa masseuse and Doan works in the entertainment industry.

Since then, other reports suggest Doan grabbed him and covered his face with a poison-laden cloth with Siti holding him, and then the pair of them going separate ways. And there are also suggestions that they have fake identities and they are indeed North Korean.

A British intelligence officer told the Mirror: "It is entirely possible both of these women are North Korean-trained spies - or one was and the lady from Jakarta has been recruited at some stage to add a non-North Korean angle to the story."

Basically, there's hundreds of stories and the facts are still yet to be fully established.

It sounds like something an espionage thriller, and when you add the fact that Huong was wearing a shirt with 'LOL' plastered over it, it just seems to bizarre to be true.

It is claimed that there is a big training programme for young North Korean female spies, plucked from schools and universities.

As reported by the Mirror, female spies are trained for eight years and are always exceptionally intelligent and attractive, employed to ensnare targets, seduce them and then kill them.

The Mirror also claims (though, frankly, I'm not sure how much of this is speculation), that the recruits have to have really traumatic and hard training, which may even mean a loved one is executed if they fail.

The programme is known as the 'honey trap' - becoming experts in numerous fields and being taught to take cyanide instead of being taken alive - this really does sound like Dr No meets Skyfall.

After a while I'm sure most, if not all, of the facts will be established. In the meantime, the development of the assassination will undoubtedly unveil even more peculiar and bizarre facets.

For a list of North Korean case studies involving female spies, take a look here.

Featured Image Credit: Soldiers in Pyongyang. Credit: PA

Topics: North Korea

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