The dose of deadly nerve gas given to Kim Jong-Nam was so high it killed him within 20 minutes, Malaysia's health minister has said.

He confirmed that the VX liquid caused "very serious paralysis", and would have taken effect in just minutes due to the size of the dose.

WMD used to kill North Korean leader's half-brother

"VX only requires 10 milligrams to be absorbed into the system to be lethal, so I presume that the amount of dose that went in is more than that".

He went on, "The dose was so high, so it did it so fast, and all over the body, so it affected the heart, it affected the lung, and it affected everything".

:: What is VX nerve agent and what does it do?


When asked how long it took for Kim to die after the chemical was wiped onto his face he said: "He died within 15 to 20 minutes".

The minister also said that due to the fact the dose was several times higher than that needed to kill a human being, it would have been a "very painful death".

Image: Indonesian suspect Siti Aisyah

The half-brother of Kim Jong-Un was attacked by two women on 13 February, in the check-in area of Kuala Lumpur airport.

Mr Kim sought help from airport staff, before fainting in the airport clinic and dying in the ambulance while en route to hospital.

On Friday, hospital autopsy reports revealed that he had been killed by the banned toxic chemical VX.

Image: Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huang

The two women - Doan Thi Huang, 28, and Siti Aisyah, 25 - who have both been arrested, are now undergoing tests to determine if they were given an antidote prior to the attack in order to protect them from the effects of the toxin.

It was confirmed that Ms Aisyah vomited in a taxi after leaving the airport but has since recovered.

Police are still searching for four North Korean men who they believe provided the women with poison before fleeing the country.

Image: The sweeping team in their Hazmat suits inside the KLIA2 terminal

The airport terminal in which the attack took place was declared free of the toxin during the early hours of Sunday morning after a "forensic sweep" by police.

The toxic checks came nearly two weeks after the attack, with tens of thousands of passengers passing through the check-in area during that time.