All language subtitles for Assassins.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x265_English

[indistinct chatter]

[interviewer speaking Malay]

[woman speaking Malay]

- Hi.

SITI'S FRIEND:

SITI:

SITI'S FRIEND:

- Thank you. Buh-bye.

SITI'S FRIEND:

MAN [shouting]:
Siti!

[diners cheering, clapping]

MAN:
Here we go!

One, two, three!

♪ Happy birthday to you... ♪

SITI'S FRIEND:

- ♪ Happy birthday... ♪

SITI'S FRIEND:

♪

ANCHOR 1: We are back with an apparent assassination,

brazenly carried out
at an international airport.

ANCHOR 2: Kim Jong-nam,
the half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un,

was murdered in Malaysia...

- ...the sudden and mysterious
death of the half-brother

of the North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un.

[speaking Korean]

[speaking Chinese]

[speaking Hindi]

ANCHOR 3: Kim Jong-nam was at
the Kuala Lumpur
International Airport

when he was reportedly poisoned.

ANCHOR 4: ...after he was
sprayed in the face
with a chemical.

ANCHOR 5: ...by two female
assassins...

ANCHOR 6: A cold-blooded
execution, straight from
a spy movie,

local media reports say.

ANCHOR 7:
Two femme fatale killers

poisoning a mysterious political figure with a chemical weapon.

ANCHOR 8: Malaysian police said
the poison used

was the deadly VX nerve agent.

ANCHOR 9: ...one of the
fastest-acting fatal poisons
that exists,

according to scientists.

ANCHOR 10: The U.S. and
South Korea believe the murder

was an assassination organized
by North Korean agents.

ANCHOR 11: But North Korea denies involvement in the crime.

ANCHOR 12: Tonight, little is
known about the two women

who have just been arrested
in connection with the murder.

ANCHOR 13: Were the women trained assassins

or innocent pawns of
North Korean agents?

♪

[dog barking]

HADI AZMI:

ANCHOR:
Well, one thing is clear.

This is one of the most bizarre murder plots in decades.

ANCHOR 2: It really is
incredible, when you look
at this woman,

who is acting in broad daylight.

ANCHOR 3:
Who are these women,

and do they work
for the North Korean regime?

REPORTER [in Malay]:

ASRIA NUR HASAN [in Malay]:

[worshippers praying]

[rooster crows]

♪

- I've never actually seen
this photo.

Wow.

My obsession with North Korea
goes back a long way.

I started covering North Korea
in 2004.

And I have not stopped yet.

So, when the assassination
happened,

I came out of a yoga class, it
was like nine o'clock at night,

and I looked at my phone

and saw it had blown up.

Kim Jong-nam has been
assassinated.

REPORTER 1: Kim Jong-nam,
at one point, was the favorite
son of Kim Jong-il,

the former leader of
North Korea.

REPORTER 2: He has been known
as a potential rival
for Kim Jong-un.

- And it's raising suspicions
that Kim Jong-un

may have once again marked one
of his own relatives for death.

ANNA FIFIELD: It was so
surprising to me, you know,
the footage,

to see Kim Jong-nam
standing in this airport.

I mean, it's so amazing
to think, you know,

I was trying to find
Kim Jong-nam for several years
before he was killed,

and just to see him walking
around, no hat, no sunglasses.

It's really like, wow,
I wish I had have been able
to talk to him.

And there's this myth
that the Kim family

was descended from Mount Paektu,

which is this mountain
at the top of North Korea

on the border with China,

that is the mythical home
of all Korean people.

And so the Kim regime
has used this to say,

"We were divinely ordained
to lead North Korea,"

and it's called
the Paektu bloodline.

So Kim Il-sung passed down
the leadership of North Korea

to his son, Kim Jong-il,

using this whole Paektu
bloodline mythology

as the basis for his legitimacy.

So when it came time
for Kim Jong-il

to anoint one of his sons,

it should have gone
to Kim Jong-nam.

REPORTER [in English]:

[in English]:

ANNA: Kim Jong-nam was
the first-born son
of Kim Jong-il.

And, in fact,
Kim Jong-nam's mother

was a famous actress
who Kim Jong-il spotted

and took her basically
as his wife.

But Kim Jong-il really doted
on Kim Jong-nam.

He was absolutely besotted
with this boy

and really seemed to relish
his time as a father
at the beginning.

♪

Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-un
grew up entirely separate.

They had different mothers.

And there's a 10-year
age difference.

Kim Jong-un's mother was another woman, she was a famous dancer,

and was very ambitious
and very present.

She was advocating and agitating

for her son, for him to be
the leader of North Korea,

and she had a very powerful
influence in the system there.

♪

So, at the beginning
of the 2000s,

Kim Jong-nam was caught in this very embarrassing situation.

He had taken
his young family to Tokyo

and was busted
by the Japanese police.

He'd gone in under a fake
Dominican Republic passport,

using a Chinese name,
Pang Xiong, which means
"fat bear."

And he said, you know,
he just wanted to take his kid
to Disneyland.

It was extremely embarrassing
for the regime.

America is North Korea's
number-one enemy

and Disneyland, you know,
can you get more American
than Disneyland?

But, in fact, there were rumors

that Kim Jong-un's mother
actually tipped off the
Japanese police

to the arrival of Kim Jong-nam
in Japan

because she wanted to make sure

that he could not become the next leader of North Korea.

So, Kim Jong-nam struck
a deal with his father

to be allowed to leave
North Korea.

He moved to Macau,
a Chinese territory,

where he was able to live
a kind of normal life.

But he was ruled out
of the succession line.

And throughout history,
we've seen

brothers being sidelined

in this way.

From Cain and Abel
to Romulus and Remus
at the foundation of Rome.

Brothers are so threatening

because they can stake a claim
to leadership

that nobody else can.

So, when I discovered that
Kim Jong-nam had been killed,

I hopped on the first flight
that I could get
to Kuala Lumpur.

[camera shutters clicking]

INVESTIGATOR [in English]:

HADI:

REPORTER:

HADI:

REPORTER 2:

[telephone rings]

GOOI SOON SENG:
Hello.

Yes, speaking.

Yes.

AZURA ALIAS [in English]:

GOOI:

- Okay, all right, then.
I will check that. Thank you.

♪

[in English]

[laughing]

Very organized.

DOAN VAN THANH [in Vietnamese]:

NGUYEN THI HA [in Vietnamese]:

DOAN VAN BINH [in Vietnamese]:

[indistinct chatter]

KANG CHOL [in English]:

HADI:

HADI:

[reporters shouting]

[horn honking]

REPORTER 1:
After years in exile,

the murdered half-brother
of North Korea's dictator

has finally gone home.

REPORTER 2: It's a clean sweep
tonight for Kim Jong-un.

North Korea's dangerous young leader has gotten the body

of his murdered half-brother
Kim Jong-nam.

And Malaysia has released
three North Koreans

wanted for questioning
in the murder.

REPORTER 3: Chaos at Beijing's
airport Friday

as North Korean Ri Jong Chol made his way through the crowd.

Ri was released
and then deported
by Malaysian authorities

after being held as a suspect

in the murder of North Korean
leader Kim Jong-un's
estranged half-brother.

[speaking Korean]

REPORTER 4: At the same time,
Malaysia got back
nine of its citizens,

who had been stuck
in North Korea during this
diplomatic standoff.

[camera shutters clicking]

The Malaysians insist
that the three North Koreans

were not traded
for nine hostages.

- We are finished with them,
so that's why we allowed them
to go.

GOOI:

ANCHOR:
The trial begins today

for the two women accused
of murdering Kim Jong-nam,

the half-brother
of the North Korean premier.

The women claim
hey are innocent.

If found guilty,
they face Malaysia's
mandatory death penalty.

[gavel raps]

HADI:

- It was not a good start
for us.

ANNA:
Kim Jong-il died in 2011.

And Kim Jong-un was officially
unveiled as the successor

when he was 25 years old.

There was a great deal of
skepticism when Kim Jong-un
was announced.

He had no experience.

He was barely out of college
at that stage.

And there was the question

if the old guard in North Korea, if they would tolerate

this young upstart coming in
and ordering them around.

So there was a lot of doubt in
Seoul, in Tokyo, in Washington,

that Kim Jong-un would be able

to keep this totalitarian
regime together.

So, since Kim Jong-un came
into power,

he has very kind of
strategically acted

to instill loyalty
at the top of the regime,

to make sure that the people
who support him,

the elites who keep him
in power,

have even more reason
than ever to keep him there.

So, the millennials of Pyongyang can now do yoga classes

and drink cappuccinos

and they live a much better life

than under his father
or his grandfather.

But the other part is fear.

He also needs to keep them
terrified.

And the way that he has done
this is by getting rid
of anybody

who threatens him,
who questions him,

who may in some way suggest

that he's not the legitimate
leader of North Korea.

And as part of that, a lot of
senior figures in the regime

have been purged.

Even his uncle,
Jang Song-thaek, was executed.

And this is very much
Kim Jong-un's MO for staying
in power.

No one is safe.

And it was around that time,
you know, Kim Jong-nam

was traveling a lot around
southeast Asia,

and he made, you know,
several surprising remarks,

where he seemed to question his brother's legitimacy to lead

and whether North Korea should
have hereditary succession.

[conversing in Korean]

ANNA:
And because of that,

because he was, you know, threatening Kim Jong-un's right to lead North Korea,

Kim Jong-nam was somebody who
certainly would be considered
a threat

by Kim Jong-un and whose life
could be in danger.

[whistle blowing]

HADI:

[gavel pounding]

HADI:

REPORTER: The Organization
for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons,

which represents 192 nations,
issued a statement saying,

"Any use of chemical weapons
is deeply disturbing."

[cheering]

While North Korea
has not acknowledged
it has chemical weapons,

South Korea estimates the regime has a stockpile

of up to 5,000 metric tons.

GOOI:

GOOI:

- Okay.

When Siti was arrested,

we went to visit her in prison.

My first impression of, uh...

her whole demeanor,
whole conduct.

She doesn't know anything.

That is when we found out
Siti's story.

[Siti speaking Malay]

SELVI SANDRASAGARAM:

SALIM BASHIR [in English]:

HISYAM TEH POH TEIK:

[singing softly]

- Okay.

- Okay.

HISYAM:

MAN: Do you need an interpreter
to translate from English
to Vietnamese?

[in English]

I have a colleague named Thuy.

HADI:

[audience laughing]

[air horn blows]

[prankster snickering]

[woman screaming]

[techno music playing]

[speaking Vietnamese]

HISYAM:

- [techno music playing]
- [man speaking off-screen]

[woman speaking Malay]

BENAH HASAN:

ASRIA [in Malay]:

[Siti speaking Malay]

SELVI:
I think for Siti...

life was difficult.
She had to survive.

And so in the hope
of a better life,

for her and her family,

she came to Kuala Lumpur
to look for a better job.

HADI:

B [in Malay]:

SELVI: According to Siti,
there was this person

John, this taxi driver,

who introduced her
to the North Koreans.

There were, what-- two, three
attempts for us to meet John.

But the police,
they could not produce him.

They said he was uncontactable.

JOHN [in Malay]:

JOHN:

[console beeping]

[whispering]

[sighs]

GOOI:

SELVI:

♪

- 1-6-8, there.

This is a photo of James.

This is John, the taxi driver
who introduced her to James.

And this is Siti, at the very
first meeting at Pavilion.

This photo--

Someone who knew John
saw him there

and took a photograph
and posted it in a group chat.

It is coincidental.
Thank God for this photo.

The photograph essentially
confirms Siti'’s story.

HADI:

HISYAM:

- Yes.
That's right.

SELVI: Siti, there was a prank
on the 9th of January.

At Mandarin Oriental.

And she made a video of James.

GOOI:

JAMES:

GOOI:

GOOI:

JAMES:

HISYAM:

Yep.

HISYAM:

SELVI:
Siti had three days of pranks,

all at the arrival
of the Kuala Lumpur
International Airport.

And then she posted
a video of KLIA.

You know, if I was going
to assassinate someone,

surely I would not tell them
where I got trained.

ANNA: As young women, they had
documented so much of this
on social media.

I mean, one of the great things
about technology here

is that it did create this trail

which showed the relationships
between the women

and their North Korean handlers

that could enable them
to put up a defense.

ANNA: Kim Jong-nam had been
living in Macau for more than
a decade.

And there are a number of rumors

that this was not
the first attempt on his life,

that Kim Jong-un had tried
repeatedly to assassinate
Kim Jong-nam.

In fact, the South Korean
intelligence reported

that Kim Jong-nam had actually written a letter to his brother, saying, you know,

"Please stop trying to kill me,"

like, "I am not a threat
to you."

You know, "I do not want
to be the leader.

"Please let me and my family...

please let us live our lives."

So he was extremely careful
and conscious that he was
always in danger.

But because he was living
in China,

for North Korea to assassinate
Kim Jong-nam,

it's very difficult because,
you know, North Korea is
reliant on China.

They are North Korea's
number-one benefactor,
patron state.

And from China's point of view,

they had given Kim Jong-nam
kind of exile protection,

and in some ways were maybe
keeping him in reserve,

that if they wanted to replace
Kim Jong-un,

they could install Kim Jong-nam as the leader of North Korea.

So there's no way
that North Korea could ever

conduct such an audacious
assassination,

or any assassination,
on Chinese soil.

So they had to make sure
they caught Kim Jong-nam

when he was outside of China.

HADI:

- So, here we have Kim Jong-nam

in the elevator
at the Westin Hotel in Langkawi,

with this man, who was later
reported to be a CIA agent.

It's never been confirmed
that this man was, in fact,

working for the CIA.

But during the course of
my reporting, I discovered
that Kim Jong-nam

had become a CIA informant
after his brother took power.

HADI:

- The CIA likes to say that
North Korea is the blackest
of all the black holes.

They have so little information about what's happening inside
North Korea.

And Kim Jong-nam,
the one thing that he had

that very few other people had

was information about the inner workings of this regime.

And if North Korea had
discovered that Kim Jong-nam

was providing information to
the American intelligence
service,

this alone would be reason
for the North Koreans

to try to eliminate him.

HISYAM:

♪

GOOI:

[woman speaking Japanese]

[man speaking Japanese]

GOOI:

HADI:

HADI:

HADI:

HADI:

GOOI:

HADI:

I saw the new actress

put hands on his face
from the back.

HADI:

- This video is important
because you can see Siti

rubbing the palm of her hand.

If she had known it was VX, you
know, the most lethal poison,

she would surely not have
rubbed the palm of her hands.

GOOI:

HADI:

GOOI:

WAN SHAHARUDDIN WAN LADIN:

REPORTER:

HADI:

ANNA: Just from a judicial point
of view, yes, these women were
caught on camera

carrying out this act.

They were very clearly the ones
who had assassinated,
technically,

Kim Jong-nam.

So Malaysia did need to act,
did need to hold somebody
to account,

and the fact is that the
masterminds of it were back in
North Korea.

[chanting]

So now the assassination
of Kim Jong-nam

has been really fundamental
to phase one

of Kim Jong-un's leadership

and to the way that he has been able to stay in power.

And once he had taken out
all his rivals,

he had proven his strength
domestically...

He was ready for phase two.

- North Korea best not make
any more threats
to the United States.

They will be met
with fire and fury

like the world has never seen.

ANNA: He wanted to get
the world's attention.

I think now that he has proven
he had a credible
nuclear weapons program,

he is now starting this process

of trying to look like
a respectable international
statesman

and seems very strong
and very confident

and very much in control
of this regime.

[birds singing]

[musical ringtone playing]

- Hello.

Okay, good.
Who is this, please?

Ah, okay, all right,
all right, fine.

WOMAN [in English]:

HISYAM:

SALIM:

[error tone playing]

[car radio playing softly]

GOOI:

SELVI:

HADI:

..."they are fucked."

REPORTER 1 [in English]:

REPORTER 1:

REPORTER 2 [in English]:

SELVI:
At this point of time,

Siti and Doan have been
in jail almost two years.

I think the girls, um,
really have no one apart
from each other.

Because they are kept separately from all other inmates.

Even then they are separated
from one another.

HISYAM:

[indistinct chatter]

[camera shutters clicking]

HADI:

SELVI:
Azura.

Azura.

HADI:

[gavel rapping]

HADI:

REPORTER:

REPORTER:

REPORTER:

♪

[indistinct chatter]

[whistle blowing]

[reporters clamoring]

[excited chatter]

REPORTER 1:

REPORTER 2:

HADI:

HADI:

[gavel raps]

HISYAM:

AZURA:

SELVI:

- Come, come.
- Azura, come.

- One for my team.

GOOI:

HADI:

REPORTER [in Malay]:

HADI:

- Vietnam and North Korea
continue to have very close
relations.

They're both communist
countries.

And there's a lot of North Korean activity inside Vietnam.

So I think Vietnam's incentive
to speak out

and to risk angering North Korea
for the sake of this one woman,

I think, was very different
from the situation that
Indonesia faced,

whereas Indonesia doesn't have
those same strong relations with
North Korea.

HADI:

BYSTANDER: Bye!
SITI: Bye!

HADI:

[speaking Malay]

ASRIA:

[quiet chatter]

SITI:

[thunder rumbling]

HISYAM:

[whistle blows]

HADI:

♪

♪

REPORTER 1 [in English]:

REPORTER 1:

[indistinct dialogue]

REPORTER 2:
Doan!

[camera shutter clicking]

[speaking Vietnamese]

INTERPRETER: The family is very,
very lucky today and very happy.

Thank you very much.

HADI:

REPORTER:

♪

SALIM: One minute, one minute.
Take their photo.

One, two...

Okay. Nice. Very good.
Thank you. - [man laughs]

- [reporters shouting]
MAN: Take off the specs.

REPORTER 1 [in Vietnamese]:

[in Vietnamese]

REPORTER 2:

DOAN:

Thank you.

Thank you, see you later.

Thank you, I'm very happy now.
Thank you so much.

Yeah. Yes.

HADI:

SITI:

[rooster crows]

[phone dialing]

DOAN [in English]:

SITI [in English]:

DOAN:

DOAN:

DOAN:

HADI:

ANNA: For all the international
condemnation and shock

that followed this
assassination,

you know, North Korea has got
away relatively scot-free
from this.

In many ways,
this is the perfect crime.

The fact that Kim Jong-un was
prepared to purge and execute
his brother,

in this most spectacular
fashion,

sent a message to the world that his brutality knows no limits,

that nobody is safe.

The North Koreans never suffered any punishment for this.

North Korea still has
an embassy in Malaysia.

You know, the relations between them have not really suffered

as a result of this.

And Kim Jong-un,

he has been able
to come to the outside world.

And he gets his red carpet
welcome on the dais
with the flags.

He gets the photo opportunity
to show himself

as an international statesman.

And now, all of a sudden,
he gets to present himself

as a peer of the most powerful
man in the world.

DONALD TRUMP: I just received
a beautiful letter from
Kim Jong-un.

I can't show you the letter,
obviously, but it was
a very personal,

very warm, very nice letter.

I saw the information about
the CIA with respect to his
half-brother.

And I would tell him that would
not happen under my...
under my auspices.

ANNA: So this is the way
that Kim Jong-un has defied
all the skepticism

and shown that he is, you know,
surprisingly adept

at being a totalitarian leader.

And I think these two women
were very unwitting pawns

in this bigger chess game.

DOAN:

SITI [in Malay]:

[speaking Malay]

♪