Malaysia arrests woman

Malaysian police probing the killing of the half-brother of North Korea's leader arrested a woman yesterday as they tried to unravel a Cold War-style assassination the South said was carried out by Pyongyang's agents.

As Seoul pointed the finger at poison-wielding female spies from North of their shared border, police in Kuala Lumpur said they were holding a woman with a Vietnamese passport.

Her arrest came around 24 hours after news broke of the death of Kim Jong-Nam, the elder sibling of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, with reports saying female assassins had sprayed toxins in his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

CCTV images that emerged in Malaysian media, purportedly of one of the suspects, showed an Asian woman wearing a white top with the letters "LOL" emblazoned on the front.

Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong was arrested at the airport yesterday morning -- two days after the killing.

Pathologists in the Malaysian capital examined the body for clues as to how he died.

Meanwhile, Seoul's spy chief said yesterday Kim Jong-Un had pleaded for his life after an assassination attempt in 2012.

Although Jong-Nam kept his distance from domestic politics, the North in 2012 tried to assassinate him, Seoul lawmakers said, following a closed-door briefing by the chief of the National Intelligence Service, Lee Byung-Ho.

"According to (Lee)... there was one bid in 2012, and Jong-Nam in April 2012 sent a letter to Jong-Un saying 'Please spare me and my family'," Kim Byung-Kee, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters.

His murder echoed the fate of his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, who was executed in Pyongyang in December 2013 for charges including treason and bribery.