S . Korea beefs up measures against possible chemical terrorism SEJONG , Feb . 27 ( Yonhap ) -- A state - run institute on chemical safety said Monday it has taken a set of measures to secure state - of - the - art equipment for effectively dealing with chemical accidents and chemical terrorism at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and other major sports events . The measures came on the heels of the revelation that a toxic chemical , the VX nerve agent , was used in the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong - un ' s half brother Kim Jong - nam . According to the National Institute of Chemical Safety , affiliated with the Environment Ministry , the equipment is comprised of 13 chemical agent detectors , six infrared spectrometers for analyzing solids and liquids , 13 drones and six vehicles for emergency spot inspections . This provided photo shows a chemical agent detector being used . ( Yonhap ) The devices and vehicles were deployed at seven regional branches of the ministry and six chemical disaster prevention centers across the country . Chemical agent detectors are used to find out a total of 26 kinds of toxic materials in a time span of 10 to 90 seconds . The 26 materials include VX nerve gas , chlorine , formaldehyde , hydrogen chloride , hydrogen fluoride and nitric acid . With infrared spectrometers for analyzing solids and liquids , explosives such as triacetone triperoxide ( TATP ) and pentaerythritol tetranitrate ( PETN ) can be detected at sites of terrorism . TATP is the same explosive which was used in terrorist bombings in London , Paris and Brussels . namsh @ yna . co . kr ( END )