DPRK suspected of jamming flight signals

Updated: 2012-05-02 15:47

(Agencies)

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SEOUL - More than 250 flights in and out of the Republic of Korea (ROK) have experienced GPS signal jamming since the weekend, with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) high on the list of suspects, officials said on Wednesday.

Similar jamming in the past was traced to the reclusive North, which last month breached US Security Council resolutions with a failed long-range rocket launch and was blamed for cyber attacks on ROK's financial institutions last year.

None of the flights, including 11 operated by foreign airlines, was in danger, the Transport Ministry said, with automatic switching of navigation to alternative systems.

"As it happened at the time of (military) drills in 2010 and 2011, we suspect DPRK was engaged in jamming signals," a government official said.

Officials at the Korea Communications Commission declined to comment whether DPRK was the source of the signal jamming but said it had been identified as the culprit in at least one similar incident.

A Defence Ministry official declined to comment on the source of the jamming but said the military's equipment had not been affected.

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