Doan Thi Huong may have been in Cambodia before Kim Jong-nam's assassination

Suspect Doan Thi Huong is believed to have visited two hotels in the Cambodian capital in January, about a month before the murder of suspected Kim Jong-nam.

V Hotel in Prampi Makara district, Phnom Penh in this photo taken yesterday. Photo: CambodiaDaily

Long Panha, a supervisor at V Hotel, said yesterday that he recognized Huong from the media because she spoke to him in the hotel lobby in mid-January, according to Cambodia Daily.

According to Asahi Shimbun, the suspects in the murder of Mr. Kim practiced the attack many times, including three escape drills in Cambodia.

Mr. Panha did not remember the exact date of the meeting and Huong’s name did not appear in the hotel’s reservation system when he checked earlier this month, but screenshots circulating online showed Huong reporting her presence at the V Hotel on her Facebook account on January 14.

Photos of the hotel lobby and inside the room were posted with the caption: "I'm here alone, but I'm not lonely." The account with the name Ruby Ruby no longer exists.

Panha said he had a brief conversation with Huong between 9 and 10 a.m. When asked, Huong said she was waiting for a friend and she did not remember the room number, he said.

She "was sitting there alone in the lobby. I just remember her asking me where the clothing store was," he said. She then went to look for the store but returned to the lobby shortly after.

Yann Samon, manager of V Hotel, said investigators from the Interior Ministry's counter-terrorism department had visited several times since February 25, most recently last week.

“The police came to investigate and question us and we provided them with documents,” he said. Officials collected information on all guests who visited the hotel in January and last month, including copies of passports.

Mr. Samon said Huong initially tried to check into the Okay Boutique Hotel, but staff took her to the V Hotel because it was fully booked. The two hotels often direct customers to each other when they are fully booked.

Suspects Doan Thi Huong and Siti Aisyah. Photo: Reuters

Vuth Em, manager of the Okay Hotel, said police also came to the hotel to collect customer information and video from surveillance cameras.

Doan Thi Huong, 29, and Siti Aisyah, 25, from Indonesia, are accused of murdering Mr Kim by smearing VX nerve agent on his face as he waited to board a flight to Macau at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13. Both have said they thought they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show.

Based on the DNA sample of the victim's son, Malaysian police identified him as Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. However, Pyongyang has so far only confirmed that the deceased was Kim Chol as the name on his diplomatic passport, and that the cause of death was most likely a heart attack. North Korea also stated that the recent incident in Malaysia was clearly a political plot by the US and South Korea to damage North Korea's reputation and overthrow the regime in this country.

According to VNE