North Korea used jamming equipment to block South Korean military communication devices last week, a report said yesterday, amid high tension over the joint drills between Seoul and Washington.
Yonhap news agency said strong jamming signals sent across the border on Friday had caused minor disruptions to phones and navigational devices using Global Positioning System (GPS) at military units near Seoul.
The signals are believed to have been sent from the North’s military facilities in Haeju and Kaesong, close to the fortified border, it said, citing Seoul intelligence and military officials.
“The signals were sent intermittently every five to 10 minutes ... we suspect the North was testing new GPS jamming devices imported from overseas,” an intelligence official quoted by Yonhap said.
“We are preparing systems to control and overcome such jamming signals,” it quoted another official as saying.
A defense ministry spokesman declined to comment.
South Korea’s former defense chief Kim Tae-young said last year a device the North had that was capable of disrupting guided weapons posed “a fresh security threat” to the South.
Kim said Pyongyang was thought to have been behind the intermittent failure of GPS receivers on naval and civilian craft along the west coast during the joint military exercise between the South and the US last August.
The North had modified Russian equipment to make its own jamming devices, he said, warning the North was capable of interfering with GPS reception over a distance of up to 100km.
The North’s GPS interrupter is believed to be effective in preventing US and South Korean guided bombs and missiles from hitting their target accurately.
Cross-border tension has escalated since last week when Seoul began the regular Key Resolve/Foal Eagle military drills with the US, which Pyongyang labeled a rehearsal for invasion.
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