South Korea’s military blames North Korea for ‘jamming attack’ on GPS signals | Aviation News

A North Korean GPS jamming operation began Friday and continued Saturday, affecting several ships at sea and dozens of civilian aircraft, South Korea said.

North Korea has carried out a jamming attack on the Global Positioning System (GPS), an ongoing jamming operation that has affected several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea, according to the Seoul military.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on Saturday warned ships and aircraft operating in the West Sea area, also known as the Yellow Sea, to be wary of jamming North Korea’s GPS signal.

“North Korea conducted GPS jamming in Haeju and Kaesong yesterday and today [November 8-9]” the JCS said in a statement, adding that several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft experienced “some operational disruptions.”

GPS is based on a network of satellites and receivers that enable global positioning and navigation.

The JCS also called on North Korea to immediately stop interfering and warned that the country would be held accountable for its actions.

Between May 29 and June 2, an estimated 500 aircraft and hundreds of ships experienced GPS problems due to North Korean interference, the South Korean government said at the time. Seoul complained to the United Nations aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which warned North Korea to stop the disruption.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said on Saturday that the latest GPS “jamming attack” involved a weaker interference signal than the widespread interference North Korea carried out in May and June.

South Korean military operations and equipment will not be affected, Yonhap said, citing the JCS.

Tensions between the two Koreas have escalated in recent months due to missile tests in Pyongyang, North Korea’s destruction of transportation infrastructure connecting the North with the South, the recent dumping of garbage from North-launched balloons over South Korea and reported deployments North Korea tightens Korean troops fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

Aviation experts said North Korea’s garbage balloon campaign, numerous ballistic missile launches and the emergence of GPS “spoofing” – where a signal is sent to override a legitimate GPS satellite signal – have increased risks in South Korean airspace and made it difficult for airlines to operate, as tensions rise between the rival nations.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP that the reason for the jamming operation needed to be analyzed.

“It remains unclear whether the intention is to divert the world’s attention from troop deployments, to stir up psychological insecurity among residents in the South or to respond to Friday’s drills,” Yang said, referring to South Korea’s test-fire of a missile.

“However, GPS jamming attacks pose a real risk of serious incidents, including, in the worst case, possible aircraft accidents,” he said.

South Korea fired a Hyunmoo short-range surface-to-surface missile into the Western Sea on Friday. The military said this was intended to demonstrate Seoul’s “strong determination to respond decisively to any North Korean threats.”

Hyunmoo missiles are key to the country’s so-called “kill chain” preemptive strike capability, which would allow Seoul to launch an attack if there are signs of an impending North Korean attack.