SEOUL, South Korea has raised North Korea’s repeated jamming of GPS navigation signals with three related international agencies and requested due measures be taken in response to the illegal acts by Pyongyang, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
The government delivered its position on the North’s GPS jamming attacks to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Monday, ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a briefing.
The North staged GPS jamming attacks in waters near South Korea’s northwestern border islands for the fifth straight day Sunday, along with the sending of thousands of balloons carrying tons of trash over the border into the South.
“We are taking necessary measures, including having raised the issue with the ITU, the ICAO and the IMO,” Lim said.
“We have in the past requested the international organizations take necessary measures when similar incidents occurred.”
In April 2
016, South Korea sent a statement to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) to denounce Pyongyang after it jammed GPS signals near the border. Seoul had requested the statement be shared among UNSC members.
Seoul also raised the issue with the ICAO in June of that year, leading to the adoption of a decision urging Pyongyang to fulfill its responsibility as an ICAO member, which came with a warning against carrying out GPS jamming.
In November of the same year, the IMO also adopted a statement condemning the North for posing threats to ship navigation.
The act of disrupting GPS signals violates the ITU charter prohibiting interference with communications from other U.N. member states. It also runs against the ICAO and IMO conventions on the protection of private airplanes and safe navigation of ships.
North Korea is a member of the ITU, ICAO and IMO.
South Korea has warned of resuming loudspeaker broadcasting along the border as part of “unendurable” responses to Pyongyang over its “irrational” provocations, in
cluding its sending of massive trash-filled balloons across the border into the South.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
