Reports: North Korea jamming South's air traffic navigation
A Korean Air jet makes a landing at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on Wednesday.
May 3rd, 2012
12:26 PM ET

Reports: North Korea jamming South's air traffic navigation

North Korea has been busy for the past week, trying to jam the navigation signals going to civilian aircraft over South Korea, according to reports in South Korean media.

Through Wednesday afternoon, the GPS satellite signals to more than 250 aircraft have been affected, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing South Korea's Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Ministry.

Planes from Korean Air, Japan Airlines, FedEx, Cathay Pacific and Thai Airways have been affected, Bloomberg news reported, citing the Land Ministry.

The jamming began April 28, according to a report from Dong-A Ilbo.

The planes have been able to use other systems to keep on their courses, according to the reports.

The planes affected were either taking off or landing at Incheon or Gimpo international airports or flying over the central region of the country, according to the reports.

The jamming signals were coming from the Kaesong area of North Korea, Chosun Ilbo reported, citing a staffer at the Korea Communications Commission.

The jamming comes after North Korea threatened to initiate "special actions" aimed at destroying the South Korean president and his government.

North Korean armed forces will use "unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style" to carry out the actions, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report.

It did not specify what those actions would involve.

 Post by:
Filed under: North Korea • South Korea
soundoff (208 Responses)
  1. WHAT!?!?!?!

    Bomb them – time to overthrow this regime. I think the US population would stand behind the removal of Noth Korea's government; this regime is worse then Iran...

    May 4, 2012 at 8:48 am | Report abuse |
  2. jrpugh09

    Seriously? War? Carpet Bombing? Joined military to just cash a check? This is why that Borat movie made me cringe, it is so close to the truth of our American redneckness. The most reasonable comment I read was the one suggesting that it is more of a test to determine the south's electronic defenses.

    I spent my year in Korea, all along the DMZ and question what the heck are we doing there anyway. The truce was signed nearly 60 years ago. Let's take our troops AND our tax dollars out of there and bring it back home. While we're at it, bring our troops home from around the world. Instead of closing military bases in the US, close them all overseas. We mobilized in WWI, WWII and the Korean conflict; we can do it again if necessary.

    May 4, 2012 at 9:12 am | Report abuse |
    • KorKomen

      no no no...the truce was a cease-fire.
      both countries have been in war for the past 60 years.
      its just a matter of time for one of them to slip off and cause a conflict.
      (prob the north)
      but yeah...they cannot just leave the border vulnerable and let down their guards....
      as they are still technically at war, and the North could do something stupid in who knows when. (as they've done couple of times before)

      May 4, 2012 at 11:21 am | Report abuse |
  3. Daryl

    North Korea is throwing another temper tantrum. Time for a big time out.

    May 4, 2012 at 10:11 am | Report abuse |
    • JD jr

      Big Time Out, yeah! Put the UN in charge, and it will be a good 10, even 15 minutes!

      May 4, 2012 at 11:56 am | Report abuse |
  4. eville_!!

    we don't need a rocket to jam your GPS signals...... we tried but bad luck,. better equipment on the ground, pointing at your satilite, more energy to laser it into submission! HAHAHAHAHA..
    Damn those NK are scary. Cause a few airline crashes in a day and see how fast the world gets say. post 9/11 scared. Wait til they figure out how to blind the airline completely....
    How many sats does NK have up already? =0. If they get one up and if it does what they want it to do, ummm ummm,, could be bad.

    May 4, 2012 at 10:38 am | Report abuse |
    • JD jr

      Electronic jamming is fairly easy to do; jamming an entire spectrum is difficult. So long as the planes (and ground radar stations) have alternate capabilities (most of WWI was flown w/o GPS after all) there should be no problem. Like Y2K, ground doesn't stop growing food jsut because a piece of silicon short circuited.

      May 4, 2012 at 11:58 am | Report abuse |
  5. creation +

    I guess we know now, the new leader is even more crazy than his daddy. If they down an US aircraft lets see what happens??

    May 4, 2012 at 1:12 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Scottish Mama

    I thought maybe because he was somewhat educated in the west he would have had some common sense. NOPE.

    May 4, 2012 at 1:20 pm | Report abuse |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
« Back to main