Pyongyang: South Korea has reportedly accused North Korea of sending out jamming signals to disrupt its civilian flights.
Martin Streetly, an expert from IHS Jane, a firm offering intelligence, consultancy and advertising solutions to the defence and national security sectors, said Pyongyang certainly has the capability of jamming GPS signals, and is believed to have been doing so since at least 2010.
It is believed that North Korea obtained the jamming devices from Russian companies and that these devices are effective for a stretch of about 150 miles if mounted on a structure such as a television transmission antenna.
They can be effective, as coalition flight crews found out during the Iraq War, Fox News reports.
“Russian-sourced jammers were encountered during the opening stages of Operation 'Iraqi Freedom', where they were credited with causing a number of GPS-guided munitions to miss their intended targets during the first 10 days of the campaign,” the report quoted Streetly, as saying.
According to the report, no flights have experienced difficulties because of the jamming so far, but the South Korean Transport Department said in a statement that 241 flights by their planes and foreign airlines have been affected since last weekend.
Meanwhile, pilots and airlines have been warned about the jamming, which is the heaviest around Seoul’s main Incheon Airport.
ANI
First Published: Thursday, May 03, 2012, 16:27