Vietnamese woman accused of killing North Korean leader's brother accepts plea deal

A Vietnamese woman was sentenced to three years and four months in jail for the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Doan Thi Huong, 30, pleaded guilty Monday after Malaysian prosecutors offered to reduce her charge from murder, which came with a mandatory death penalty sentence, to "voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means."

The charge came with a maximum of 10 years in prison but the Malaysian Shah Alam High Court sentenced her to a little more than three years to be served starting Feb. 15, 2017, the date of her arrest, meaning she could be released as soon as next year.

Malaysian prosecutors reduced the charge after speaking with Huong's lawyer and the Vietnamese embassy, Sky News reported.

Vietnam had been applying diplomatic pressure on Malaysia to release Huong after her co-accused Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 26, was discharged without dismissal on March 11.

Huong's lawyer had accused the Malaysian court of discrimination as both women were arrested and faced similar charges for their role in the death of Kim Jong Nam in 2017.

The women were accused of smearing a toxic nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam's face at an airport in Kuala Lumpur.

Both Huong and Aisyah have said that they believed they were taking part in a prank for a reality television show and that they had been used by North Korean agents sent out to kill Kim Jong Nam, who had been living in exile in Macau with his family.

It is believed that Kim Jong Un wanted Kim Jong Nam dead in order to solidify his claim as leader of the North Korean regime.

Seoul begins war remains excavation without N. Korea
Seoul (AFP) April 1, 2019 - Seoul began a unilateral effort to excavate Korean War remains along the border Monday as silence from Pyongyang stymied a previously agreed joint operation with the North.

The joint excavation along the Demilitarised Zone of remains from the 1950-53 conflict was part of a military agreement signed at a Pyongyang summit in September between the South's President Moon Jae-in and the North's leader Kim Jong Un.

Under the deal -- aimed at defusing military tensions -- around 100 personnel from the two sides were to jointly carry out the recovery operation from April 1 to October 31.

But progress on the key issue of the North's nuclear weapons has since stalled, with Kim's Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump breaking up in February without agreement, raising doubts over the future of inter-Korean projects.

Seoul's defence ministry said the North had not responded to its calls and the South Korean military would begin preparatory excavation work Monday on the southern side of the DMZ.

"We are making preparations so that it can be immediately shifted to a South-North joint excavation once North Korea responds," Roh Jae-cheon, the ministry's deputy spokesman, told reporters.

Moon -- who met Kim three times last year -- has long backed a policy of engagement with nuclear-armed, sanctions-hit Pyongyang and was instrumental in brokering talks between the US and North Korea.

At a meeting with his top aides on Monday, Moon said the failed US-North Korean summit in Vietnam posed a "temporary difficulty" but added: "It is clearly being confirmed that the South, the North, and the US all do not wish to go back to the past."

Moon, who will fly to Washington next week, said his rapidly arranged summit with the US president showed the allies wanted to revive the "momentum for dialogue at an early date".

Since Hanoi, Pyongyang and Washington have both sought to blame each other for the deadlock.

Pyongyang said it had proposed dismantling the Yongbyon complex -- a sprawling site covering multiple different facilities -- in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions that have isolated the North.

But US officials have said the North wanted all significant sanctions removed while not making clear exactly which facilities at Yongbyon it was willing to give up -- and Trump has said that "the weapons themselves need to be on the table".

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N. Korea activity incompatible with denuclearization: US
Washington (AFP) March 27, 2019
North Korean military activities are incompatible with denuclearization, which the United States is demanding as a condition for lifting sanctions, the commander of US forces in South Korea said Wednesday. "Despite a reduction in tensions along the demilitarized zone and a cessation of strategic provocations coupled with public statements of intent to denuclearize, little to no verifiable change has occurred to North Korea's military capabilities," General Robert Abrams testified to lawmakers. " ... read more