The South Korean Army has denounced that North Korea has been interfering with GPS signals since Friday, which is affecting the navigation of numerous ships and the flight of dozens of civil aircraft.
According to a statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul, these interferences come from the North Korean cities of Haeju and Kaesong, located near the border, and cause “operational disruptions” in air and maritime traffic.
The Army urged South Korean ships and planes operating in the Yellow Sea to be alert to these attacks that began on Friday and continue this Saturday.
“We strongly urge North Korea to immediately stop its GSP provocations and warn it that we will hold it responsible for any problems arising from this,” he added.
A historical tension
The incident comes after days of shows of force by both countries faced since the Korean War of the 1950swhich determined the current division of that peninsula of northeast Asia.
North Korea launched a shot from its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile and several volleys of short-range projectiles. For its part, South Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Friday to demonstrate its “strong resolve to respond firmly to any North Korean provocation.”
The already complicated relations between Seoul and Pyongyang They were further cracked by the strengthening of the alliance between Russia and North Korea and the signing of a mutual defense treaty between the two.
The United States and South Korea assure that the Kim Jong Un’s regime sent troops to Russia to fight against Ukraine which, according to the latest intelligence data, would total 10,000 troops.
In response, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol opened the door to supplying weapons to Ukraine, breaking his tradition of not providing war material to countries in conflict.
According to the South Korean military, this is not the first time that Pyongyang has tried to jam GPS signals. It already did so in May, but then it did not affect the South’s military operations.
Experts warn that these types of actions can lead to other, more serious incidents that exacerbate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
«It is still unclear whether there is an intention to divert attention from troop deployment (in Russia), to instill psychological insecurity among residents in the South or to respond to Seoul’s Friday maneuvers, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
“However, GPS jamming attacks pose a real risk of serious incidents, including possible plane crashes in worst-case scenarios,” he added.
Another hypothesis put forward by Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector who now heads the World Institute for North Korean Studies, is that Pyongyang wants to “protect its own communications and intelligence exchanges during critical military operations.”
According to South Korea’s presidential office, this key US ally in East Asia has also suffered an increase in cyberattacks from pro-Russian groups since it denounced the deployment of North Korean troops on the Ukrainian front.
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