Posing for a Facebook selfie, this is the woman suspected of killing Kim Jong-un's brother - in an image posted online just days before the assassination.

Doan Thi Huong, who is being held in Malaysia over the killing of Kim Jong-nam in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, can be seen wearing a shirt with 'LOL' emblazoned on the front.

A similar white top was worn by a woman shown in CCTV footage from the terminal minutes after Jong-nam was poisoned to death.

Separate photos, in a Facebook account under the name of Ruby Ruby, show her posing in a revealing red swim suit and wearing a black dress with floral patterns.

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Suspected assassin Doan Thi Huong can be seen wearing a shirt with 'LOL' emblazoned on the front. A similar white top was worn by a woman shown in CCTV footage from the terminal minutes after Kim Jong-nam was poisoned to death

Doan Thi Huong had a Facebook account under the name Ruby Ruby and posted pictures of herself wearing a revealing red swim suit

The 28-year-old had posted to Facebook under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, 18-year-old niece, Dinh Thi Quyen

Just days before the death of Jong-nam a photo was posted on her profile showing her in a shirt with the acronym 'LOL' - similar to the one scene in CCTV images (left) of her at Kuala Lumpur after the North Korean was poisoned. She is shown right in a police image

They emerged amid unsubstantiated claims that the 28-year-old may have appeared on Vietnam's version of the TV talent show Pop Idol in June.

Footage shows the woman - contestant number 67816 - singing quietly before being interrupted halfway through her performance by one one of three judges and then walking off stage. She left the competition in the first round.

Just days before the death of Jong-nam a photo was posted on her profile showing her in a shirt with the acronym 'LOL' - similar to the one scene in CCTV images of her at Kuala Lumpur after the North Korean was poisoned.

The 28-year-old had posted to Facebook under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, 18-year-old niece, Dinh Thi Quyen and photographer Keow wee Loong who knows a friend of Huong.

Her profile picture shows Huong wearing a red cut-out swimsuit at a pool.

Other photos are selfies taken in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a few days before Kim Jong Nam was attacked at the city's airport by two women who rubbed his face with apparent poison.

The account's first post was made December 14 and the last was February 11 from an area near the airport.

Other photos of the suspect are selfies taken in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian police said two women allegedly involved in the assassination - Siti Aisyah (left) and Doan Thi Huong (right) - knew the poisoning wasn't a 'TV prank'

Police want to question the North Korean embassy's second secretary, Hyon Kwang Song (left), as well as a North Korean airline employee called Kim Uk Il (right)

North Korean Ri Ji U has also been identified for questioning in connection with the murder of Kim Jong Nam

'I want to sleep more but by your side,' it said above a photo of Huong with closed eyes and short blonde hair.

Many of her 65 Facebook friends are men, including several South Koreans.

A second Facebook account under the name 'Bella Tron Tron Bella' - also containing pictures of Huong - had a link to Vietnam Idol's page.

It has since emerged that she was renowned for her fashion, funky hairstyles and foreign boyfriends, say family members shocked at the link between their poor rice-farming village and a crime that has gripped the world.

Doan Thi Huong gained notoriety last week after Malaysian police shared CCTV images of her wearing a top emblazoned with 'LOL' - shortly after the February 13 assassination of Jong-Nam.

Seoul has said from the start that Pyongyang was behind the murder, citing a 'standing order' from Kim Jong-Un (right) to kill his elder sibling Jong-Nam (left), and a failed assassination bid in 2012

Malaysian police suspect five North Koreans in the killing of Kong Jong-Nam, and seek three more for questioning, including diplomat Hyon Kwang Song

She was arrested alongside an Indonesian woman, both accused of carrying out a fatal poison attack on the unsuspecting Kim ahead of his flight home to Macau.

The unlikely connection between a country girl from a poor rural backwater 90 miles outside Hanoi to a high-profile assassination, has added another layer of intrigue to a crime that has captivated with its echoes of Cold War-era conspiracy and spycraft.

Houng's arrest has caused fevered interest inside Vietnam, despite attempts by security officials in the communist nation to control the information flow.

Her family recall a girl who broke the conservative conventions of Quan Phuong village with her dyed hair, edgy clothes and foreign boyfriends since she left aged 18 apparently to study.

'At first we doubted it was her when we saw the picture with the 'LOL' shirt,' stepmother Nguyen Thi Vy told AFP.

'But when someone bought a clearer picture here, we knew it was our Huong,' she said.

'If she committed the crime, she has to suffer, we can't do anything... but I think she must have been set up by someone.'

Jong-Nam died on February 13 after being attacked as he waited for a plane to Macau

Malaysia's police chief has scotched suggestions Huong and the other female suspect were duped.

On Wednesday he said CCTV footage showed they were 'very aware' the substance they wiped on Kim's face was toxic, adding the pair had practised.

But when she returned home during the Tet lunar new year festival in late January she gave no hint of being mixed up in serious criminality, locals said.

Neighbour Maria Nguyen described Huong as someone who stood out in the small village of dozens of homes encircled by paddy fields.

'She has always been very fashionable, with colourful hair,' she said. 'Every Tet she would come back home with some different (foreign) man,' she added.

Vietnamese social media has filled gaps in Huong's history with conjecture and rumours.

As well as the unsubstantiated images from the television talent show, others have linked to a YouTube channel apparently showing the same young woman kissing a famous social media prankster.

Kim Jong Nam was seen on CCTV at the airport moments after he was attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia

Shocking pictures show Kim Jong-Nam slumped in a chair having been poisoned

They have fuelled the mystery surrounding a girl caught in the eye of a scandal involving North Korea, a secretive state with a long track record of carrying out assassinations and kidnappings overseas.

Huong was last seen by her family just a few weeks ago during Tet, arriving broke and leaving after a few days.

'She did not have a penny in her pocket. I gave her some money to buy a bus ticket,' her stepmother added.

Huong's brother Doan Van Binh said he knew little about his sister's life after she left the village.

'I encouraged her to study and earn money so that her future would be good,' he said.

'My family is very sad. We all thought she was in a good place,' he added.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar says help has been sought from Interpol to issue an alert for the four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the same day Kim Jong Nam was killed.

It is not known what Interpol can do, as the four are believed to be back in Pyongyang and North Koreas is not a member of Interpol.

Khalid also said there were no plans to send officers to Macau to collect a DNA sample from Kim Jong Nam's family. Kim had a home in Macau and was about to fly there when he was killed.

Malaysian Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar says authorities believe five North Koreans are involved in the murder of Kim Jong-Nam in Kuala Lumpur

North Korea says Malaysia's investigation into the death of one of its nationals is full of 'holes and contradictions' amid speculation that its agents masterminded the assassination.

Malaysia police have not directly pinpointed North Korea as being behind the death of Kim Jong Nam, but they are searching for several North Korean suspects over his killing at a Malaysian airport this month.

The Korean Jurists Committee said in a statement Thursday that the Malaysian investigation lacks fairness and has been influenced by the South Korean government, which blames Pyongyang for the death.

The North has not acknowledged that the dead man is Kim Jong Nam. Thursday's statement described the man only as a North Korean citizen bearing a diplomatic passport.

Yesterday North Korean diplomats called for the immediate release of the two 'innocent women' arrested in connection with the apparent poisoning last wee.

A statement released Wednesday by North Korea's embassy in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the police account of Kim Jong Nam's death - that the women had coated their hands with toxins and then rubbed them on his face as he stood in front of a ticketing kiosk at a Kuala Lumpur airport.

If the poison was on their hands, the statement asked 'then how is it possible that these female suspects could still be alive?' One of the women is Indonesian, the other is Vietnamese.