GPS on Airline Flights Out of South Korea Jammed

Posted May 2nd, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC-5)
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South Korean officials say more than 250 airline flights into and out of the country have experienced GPS signal jamming over the past few days.

The transport ministry in Seoul says the interference began last Saturday and has affected flights out of the capital's two main airports. It said the affected planes have relied on alternate navigation systems, and that none of the flights was in danger.

Similar jamming in the past has been traced to North Korea. A defense ministry spokesman in Seoul Wednesday declined to comment specifically on the source of this recent GPS jamming.

North Korea has increased its rhetoric against the South in recent weeks, threatening “special military action” against the government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. And there is growing speculation that Pyongyang soon will attempt to detonate a uranium-fueled weapon. It previously conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

North Korea already is under international sanctions for previous nuclear and missile tests. The United Nations Security Council is expected to add three North Korean state companies to a U.N. blacklist of firms banned from international trade, after China agreed to allow them to be sanctioned.