Electronic warfare
US brings Global Hawk drone to Japan
May 26th
The U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk drone landed in Japan for the first time on Saturday.
The aircraft is one of the most advanced unmanned craft in the world and is typically used for surveillance and eavesdropping missions from its perch at around 60,000 feet — well above the level of commercial aircraft but lower than the maximum altitude of the U2 spy plane.
Usually based at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the Global Hawk landed at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan on Thursday, May 24, as part of a bilateral deal with Japan signed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in October last year. More >
North Korean newspaper hits out at U.S. cyber warfare policy
Aug 12th
Citing a top secret U.S. government document leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, North Korea’s Minju Joson newspaper has attacked America’s cyber warfare policy calling it an “open threat to mankind” and a “declaration of the cyber war.”
The Presidential Policy Directive 20, an October 2012 paper that outlined U.S. cyber operations policy for those in the highest officials in the U.S. government, called for a list of potential targets for possible U.S. cyber attacks under the umbrella of “Offensive Cyber Effects Operations.”
That’s likely worried North Korea, which probably has a better chance than many other nations of making such a list.
“This means that More >
US sees no special help to DPRK from Chinese military
May 8th
David F. Helvey, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, briefs reporters about the military and security developments involving China during a news conference at the Pentagon, May 6, 2013. (Photo: Aaron Hostutler/DOD)
The Chinese military isn’t providing any special help to the Korea People’s Army (KPA) on a regular basis, according to the U.S. Department of Defense’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia.
David Helvey was speaking to the press in Washington on Monday afternoon after the department published its annual report on military and security developments involving China. North Korea comes up just twice in the unclassified version of the More >
No surprises in DoD’s DPRK report to Congress
May 6th
This week the U.S. Department of Defense published its annual report to Congress on military and security developments Involving the DPRK. The 20-page unclassified document provides a good if brief overview of the current state of North Korean armed forces. For tech-watchers, it doesn’t include any surprises.
The country’s cyber warfare capabilities were addresses in one carefully worded paragraph. The DoD noted the allegations made in South Korea that the DPRK was behind several attacks, but didn’t itself assert any involvement or disclose any knowledge of the country’s actual capability.
In fact, the DoD noted that finding the ultimate source of a cyber More >
#OpNorthKorea brings more attacks on DPRK websites
Mar 30th
A new round of attacks against North Korean websites began Saturday, causing several to become unavailable.
The attacks appear to be part of a loosely coordinated effort by hackers to target North Korean sites after the country’s state-run media said relations with South Korea were “at a state of war.”
As of 3pm Korean time (0600 UTC) on Saturday, attempts to contact the Naenara, Korean Central News Agency, Air Koryo and Voice of Korea all failed.
The sites were hit with an apparent DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack in which the web servers are flooded with so much junk traffic from hackers More >
Report: DPRK jams South Korean satellite comms
Nov 17th
North Korea earlier this year jammed military communications running through a South Korea satellite, according to a report in the Joong Ang Ilbo.
The newspaper, which quoted an anonymous South Korean military official, said a powerful signal sent from a location near Pyongyang caused interference to military communications on the Koreasat 5 satellite in March this year.
However, as usual with such leaks from the Korean government to the local media, what actually happened remains far from clear.
Koreasat 5 was launched in 2006 and carries a mixed commercial and military payload.
On the commercial side are 24 ku-band transponders operated by Korea Telecom that carry Korean More >
Pyongyang denies GPS jamming
May 19th
North Korea denied on Friday that it played any part in a two and a half week long jamming of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals in the border area between North and South Korea.
The denial was carried in several state media outlets and said allegations that the DPRK was behind the jamming were part of “a new farce and smear campaign.”
The jamming took place between April 28 and May 14 and resulted in several hundred civilian aircraft and ships experiencing disruption to their navigation systems, according to reports. It made GPS signals unavailable or unreliable but didn’t result in any serious accidents. South Korean More >
GPS jamming ends, says report
May 16th
The apparent intentional jamming of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals that has disrupted service near the Korean border has stopped, Yonhap news reported on Tuesday.
The jamming has caused inconvenience to hundreds of commercial aviation flights and international shipping since it began on April 28. The source of the interference isn’t known but South Korean media have quoted government sources as saying it’s been coming from the North Korean city of Kaesong.
The signals ended on Monday, said Yonhap.
The end of the interference came on the same day that South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and Chinese premier Hu Jintao met in More >
DPRK jamming GPS signals, says Seoul
May 3rd
Interference is causing problems with Global Positioning System (GPS) signals around Seoul and the South Korean government says North Korea is to blame.
GPS signals became unreliable on April 30 and more than 250 commercial aircraft has to rely on other navigation methods, according to several local media reports.
A spokesman for the Korea Communications Commission told The New York Times. “We believe that the jamming signals originated in North Korea,” but a different spokesman told AFP that North Korea had been confirmed as the source.
“We’ve confirmed the GPS jamming signals have been stemming from the North,” AFP quoted KCC deputy director Lee Kyung-Woo, More >
Pyongyang satellite monitoring station
Feb 12th
In the northern Pyongyang suburb of Hyongjesan there are twelve large satellite dishes on a hillside. The dishes, easily visible in satellite photos, have been there for at least a decade and while their function is unknown, their close proximity to North Korea’s signals intelligence headquarters might be a clue to their purpose.
Some of the dishes have buildings next to them while others are surrounded by trees. Their exact size is difficult to determine, but most appear to be around 16- or 18-meters in diameter. That makes them large enough to receive signals from many satellites in orbit above Asia, but what are More >
