South Korea is preparing for the possibility of North Korea disrupting satellite traffic navigation signals in the South to hamper the upcoming allied military exercise here, a military source said Friday.
Since August 2010, Pyongyang has broadcast strong radio signals to the South three times, disrupting Global Positioning System signals in Seoul and other regions and causing mobile phones and other electronic equipment to temporarily malfunction.
"We are preparing for the possibility that around the time (South Korea and the U.S. stage) the Key Resolve drills, the North will discharge electric waves to disrupt GPS signals (in the South)," the source said on the condition of anonymity, referring to the command post drills slated to begin on March 7.
"Military equipment containing commercial GPS systems could be affected by the electric waves."
An official at Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the communist regime has multiple GPS disruption tools with an operational range of more than 100 kilometers.
Some of the South's military equipment carry commercial satellite navigation systems, which are vulnerable to the North's electronic warfare. The U.S. is known to use strictly military GPS for field operations.
North Korea's "Unit 121," also known as the Cyberwarfare Guidance Unit, is known to be in charge of GPS disruption campaigns.
Intelligence officials estimate that the unit has some 3,000 personnel. It belongs to the General Reconnaissance Bureau, an organization that has masterminded a series of fatal provocations against the South, including a torpedo attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan in 2010. (Yonhap)