North behind 331 GPS jamming attacks this month: Science Ministry

North Korea conducted 331 GPS jamming attacks this month, though there was no actual damage related to these cases, the South Korean government announced Sunday.

The flight path of a South Korean drone over Pyongyang on Oct. 8, as claimed by North Korea. [YONHAP]

North Korea conducted 331 GPS jamming attacks this month, though there was no actual damage related to these cases, the South Korean government announced Sunday.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said while revealing its latest figures that the jamming signals coming from North Korea were continuously being detected by a radio monitoring system.

From Nov. 1 to 11 a.m. on Sunday, there were a total of 331 cases of GPS signal reception failures, including 279 cases for aircraft and 52 cases for ships, according to the ministry. It said there was no actual damage, such as operational accidents, due to these failures.

On Friday and Saturday, North Korea also sent out GPS jamming signals from its Haeju and Kaesong areas, which caused some disruption to the operation of South Korean ships and civilian aircraft. However, the signal output was reportedly weaker than in May.

North Korea has been intermittently sending out GPS jamming signals in areas from its western Hwanghae Province since early last month, according to South Korea’s military on Sunday.

In late May and June, when North Korea first began sending trash-laden balloons toward the South, it carried out GPS jamming attacks for five consecutive days in the Northern Limit Line (NLL) area near the West Sea.

During this period, the jamming attacks were seen as a provocation directed toward South Korea, based on the direction and output strength of the signals.

South Korea's military has found that the recent GPS jamming attempts, compared to the ones in May and June, are ambiguous in intent — in that the output strength detected is lower and the duration is shorter. This has made it difficult to view the actions as a full-scale attack attempt.

The South Korean military is paying particular attention to the fact that North Korea’s GPS jamming signals this time around are mainly directed in a direction other than southward. If a GPS jamming attack is targeting the South, the jamming signals should be directed southward, but the recent jamming signals have been directed in various other directions.

The South Korean military has thus determined that the main target of the jamming is not the South, even though the signals were detected by the South’s military equipment.

Considering that North Korea began sending out such jamming signals early last month, authorities suspect the actions may be related to the alleged South Korean drone that North Korea claims appeared in Pyongyang.

North Korea claimed on Oct. 11 that “South Korea invaded the airspace over Pyongyang late at night on Oct. 10, following from Oct. 3 and 9,” through a statement from the North’s Foreign Ministry.

“Drones of the South Korean military that took off from Baengnyeong Island on Oct. 8 invaded our republic’s airspace and passed through the waters around Jangyeon County and Cho Island in South Hwanghae Province and invaded our capital city,” North Korea further announced on Oct. 28.

As the jamming signals seem to be directed toward the waters north of Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, it could be speculated that North Korea is aiming to block out the alleged drone infiltration route.

The presence of the commander of the North's Detection and Electronic Warfare Bureau, who is presumed to be in charge of the GPS jamming, at the defense and safety sector consultative meeting last month also supports this analysis. The meeting was hosted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Oct. 14 to respond to South Korean drones.

“The impact of the North’s GPS jamming attacks to our side is minimal this time, but we are monitoring the signal because it is being detected,” said a South Korean military official. “We are analyzing the possibility that it is an internal training exercise, or that it is being used to show off air defense capabilities to secure legitimacy for itself after publicizing the drone claim.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]