Kim Jong-nam murder suspect ‘thought she was in a TV prank’

An Indonesian woman held over the killing of Kim Jong-un's half-brother thought she was taking part in a TV prank, police have said.

Kim Jong-nam was reportedly sprayed with a poisonous substance as he waited to board a flight in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Two women and a man were arrested over the death.

Indonesia's national police chief Tito Karnavian said that one of the women, named as Siti Aisyah, claimed to have been paid to perform what she thought was a prank.

He said that the two women had already performed the prank on other men. The prank involved convincing the men to close their eyes before spraying them with water.

"Such an action was done three or four times and they were given a few dollars for it, and with the last target, Kim Jong-nam, allegedly there were dangerous materials in the sprayer," Karnavian told reporters.

"She was not aware that it was an assassination attempt by alleged foreign agents."

A grainy image broadcast in South Korea and Malaysia showed a woman running in the airport, wearing a white T-shirt with the letters "LOL" written on the front.

One suspect wore a shirt with "LOL" - "laugh out loud" - written on it

North Korea has demanded that Malaysia immediately release the body of Kim Jong-nam. North Korea’s ambassador to Malaysia said his country had not consented to the post-mortem carried out on the dead man's body and would categorically reject its findings.

"We strongly urge and demand the Malaysian side not to be entangled with the political plot by the forces hostile to the DPRK [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea] who want to damage the image of our republic - and to release the body immediately without any condition," Ambassador Kang Chol said.