N. Korea disrupts S. Korea-US drills with 3-day GPS jamming

Just a day after the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise 'Freedom Shield (FS)' began, multiple instances of Global Positioning System (GPS) signal disruption were detected emanating from north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea. Military officials are under the impression that North Korea aims to hinder the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise through GPS jamming, anticipating that these efforts will persist until the exercise wraps up on March 14.

On Friday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported detecting multiple instances of North Korea directing GPS jamming signals toward the five islands in the West Sea from noon on Tuesday to Thursday. Following Tuesday's initial detection of the jamming signals, the government raised the GPS-related alert status from 'normal' to 'watch.' Subsequently, when some fishing vessels and aircraft began experiencing GPS reception problems, the alert level was escalated to 'caution' on Wednesday afternoon.

The government's monitoring revealed three incidents of interference and confusion on Tuesday, 15 on Wednesday, and seven on Thursday. The authorities have clarified that, thus far, the disruptions have been minor and have not impacted maritime operations. However, military officials have issued a warning, stating, “North Korea's GPS jamming activities could significantly threaten the operations of military ships, aircraft, and civilian vessels,” emphasizing that a “fitting response would be ensured if any damage occurred.”

The drills involved 33 aircraft, including the F-4E Phantom fighter jet slated for retirement in June, as well as the F-15K, KF-16, F-16, FA-50, F-5, and F-35A. This marked the first time every fighter jet model in South Korea’s Air Force was involved. "Our Air Force must evolve into a force capable of overwhelmingly countering any enemy provocation, thereby earning the trust of our people and instilling fear in our foes," Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Young-soo said during his visit to the site.


Hyo-Ju Son hjson@donga.com