Eight months after the audacious assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's estranged half brother, a Malaysian court is trying to unweave a complicated web of deception, political intrigue and cold-blooded brutality.
The scheme was allegedly cooked up by a network of North Koreans who have never, and almost certainly never will, set foot in the courthouse.
Was it the perfect crime?
Almost as soon as Kim Jong Nam was killed in a crowded Kuala Lumpur airport budget terminal, the internet broadcast the attack to millions of people around the world. Security camera footage showed Kim, who had been jumped by two mysterious women, gesturing for help, his face covered with an obscure but exceedingly potent poison. By the time he got to a hospital, he was dead.
On Tuesday, members of the court hearing the case were set to visit the airport crime scene for the first time as the prosecution steps up its case against the only suspects actually facing punishment - two young Southeast Asian women whose lives are on the line, but who claim they were tricked into carrying out what they thought was a harmless prank.
Here's what's known about the case so far:
The mark
Kim Jong Nam, aged 45 or 46, was the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
When he checked in for his AirAsia flight bound for Macau on February 13, his passport read Kim Chol, the North Korean equivalent of John Doe.
Kim Jong Nam had been seen as a potential heir to the country's dynastic leadership until he very publicly fell from grace when he was caught trying to enter Japan in 1998 to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
The incident left him in de facto exile, spending most of his time in the Chinese territory of Macau.
By 2010 Kim Jong Un was revealed as the heir apparent and Kim Jong Nam, his brother from another mother, was regarded as a luxury-hungry, tattoo-covered playboy well out of the North Korean political power picture.
However, because of his pedigree, was seen by some as a viable replacement if Kim Jong Un were to ever be removed from power.
Rumours have it there were at least two previous attempts on his life in the past several years.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah, left, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, right, are accused of fatally poisoning Kim Jong Nam. Source: AAP
The 'Lizard Tails'
The young women who face the death penalty if convicted are Siti Aisyah, who is Indonesian, and Doan Thi Huong, who is Vietnamese.
Huong wore a T-shirt emblazoned with "LOL" - laugh out loud - when she lunged for Kim at the airport.
Under Malaysian law, the women can't be sentenced to die if they didn't have intent to kill. And that, essentially, is their defense.
Both claim they were "lizard tails," the unwitting and expendable victims of an elaborate plot orchestrated by several men who convinced them they were taking part in a reality TV show, a comedy in which they would wipe lotion on the faces of unsuspecting marks.
The women practiced the "pranks" on several occasions.
Authorities suspect several other North Korean men played a role in the attack, but four of them left Malaysia that same day.
Prosecutors contend the women knew they were handling poison - the banned nerve agent VX, which is very hard to concoct by civilians and is better known in military contexts as a potential weapon of mass destruction.
The prosecution also contends the women very deliberately rushed to wash their hands after the attack, indicating they were fully aware of the danger from the VX.
Rumours have it there were at least two previous attempts on Kim Jong Nam's life in the past several years. Source: AAP
The missing North Koreans
No one seriously believes Aisyah and Huong acted alone.
Not only did North Koreans recruit the two, according to the prosecution, but they supplied the poison.
Prosecutors have argued that Kim Jong Nam was killed with the VX nerve agent. How the women avoided poisoning themselves remains a question mark. There is a VX variant - VX2 - that can be divided into two component parts that are relatively safe until mixed together on the target. But an expert witness has testified that requires high temperatures and was not a practical option.
Investigators say a third suspect, "Mr Y," who was videoed wearing a black baseball cap and carrying a backpack as he walked with Huong at the airport the morning of the attack, applied one half of the VX2 to her hand.
Another man, Chang, who was taped meeting Aisyah in a cafe not too far from the check-in kiosk where Kim was attacked, allegedly did the same for the Indonesian woman.
Chang has since been identified as Hong Song Hak, and Malaysian investigators say they have yet another North Korean suspect, "Hanamori."
But they are all long gone.
A man known as "James", since identified as Ri Ji U and the first to enlist Aisyah, has also left the country after holing up at the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
