Huong, who received a jail term of several years, which was cut due to sentence remissions, was freed from a prison outside the Malaysian capital at about 7.20am, her lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said.

Journalists waiting outside the jail saw a van and a car with tinted windows race past, and a court official at the scene also confirmed Huong had been released.

Speaking ahead of her release, Hisyam had said she was “definitely looking forward to going home”. The 30-year-old former hair salon worker was expected to head to an immigration office in administrative capital Putrajaya to sort out documentation, before flying to Vietnam in the evening.

Her family, who spoke to the South China Morning Post from Nam Dinh city, 110km north of Hanoi, said they were looking forward to her return.

“I feel extremely happy and excited,” said Doan Van Thanh, her father, who saw his daughter for the first time since her arrest on April 1, when she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.

“I received help from the Vietnamese government who helped arrange papers and cover expenses for me to go to Malaysia for five days to meet my daughter. We asked about each other’s well-being when I met her in Malaysia.”

Doan Van Binh, Thi Huong’s brother, said he was “filled with joy” at the news of his sister’s release.

“We are preparing a 100kg pig to celebrate,” he said.

While there is relief for the women – who said they believed they were taking part in a TV show prank – those behind the plot are unlikely to ever face justice.

“The assassins have not been brought to justice,” said Hisyam, adding the women’s legal teams consistently argued their North Korean handlers were the real murderers.

Murdered Kim Jong-nam ‘felt he was living on borrowed time’ in Macau

The pair were arrested after they were captured on airport CCTV cameras walking up behind Kim, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, as he waited for a flight, and one was seen clasping her hands over his face.

Kim, heir apparent to the North’s leadership until he was exiled from his homeland, died in agony shortly afterwards, his face smeared with poison.

Aisyah and Huong were put on trial for murder in October 2017 and faced death by hanging if convicted.

The defence stage of the case was due to start in March, but in a shock move, prosecutors announced they were withdrawing the murder charge against Aisyah, 27, and she flew back to Jakarta.

Her release followed intense diplomatic pressure from Indonesia, including from President Joko Widodo.

Indonesian villagers welcome home Siti Aisyah

Vietnam then stepped up pressure for Huong’s murder charge to be dropped. Their initial request was refused, but at the start of April prosecutors offered her a reduced charge, paving the way for her release.

The assassination sparked a furious row between North Korea and Malaysia, previously one of nuclear-armed Pyongyang’s few allies, and prompted both countries to expel each other’s ambassadors.

Ties have improved in recent times however with Malaysia saying it plans to reopen its embassy in Pyongyang, which was closed shortly after the murder.

Additional reporting by Sen Nguyen