Korea is set to strengthen activities to monitor environmental and maritime radiation levels and to detect underground nuclear tests by neighboring countries in the wake of North Korea’s October nuclear test.

The Korean government will establish 23 environmental radioactivity monitoring centers in Seoul and the nearby metropolitan area, as well as areas near North Korea and in the coastal regions. To detect maritime radioactivity, systems to measure the level of radioactive gamma rays and collect floating aerial particles at sea will soon go into operation.

And to sniff out underground nuclear tests in the region, the government has also decided to introduce devices to simultaneously analyze radioactive xenon and krypton gases that are emitted by a nuclear test.