A mysterious intermittent failure of Global Positioning System receivers on naval and civilian craft in some parts of the west coastal region from Aug. 23-25 was "partly" caused by North Korea, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young claimed Monday.
During a parliamentary audit of the Defense Ministry, Grand National Party lawmaker Chung Mi-kyung asked the minster whether he thinks the GPS failure along the west coast in August was caused by North Korea.
"We believe that North Korea is capable of disrupting GPS reception within the distance of 50 to 100 km," Kim said. "However, the detention of South Korean fishing boat Daeseung on Sept. 8 on the East Sea is irrelevant to this issue as it was too far away from North Korea."
Since the late 1990s, North Korea imported from Russia equipment that disrupts GPS reception, modified it, and made its own version. It has also been trying to export the equipment to the Middle East, he said.
North Korea's GPS interrupter is believed to be effective in preventing the South Korean and U.S. military's GPS-guided bombs and missiles such as Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) from hitting their target accurately.
