North Korea balloons, GPS interference raise safety risks for airlines
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[July 10, 2024]
By Lisa Barrington
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's trash balloon campaign, missile launches
and the emergence of GPS "spoofing" have increased risks in South Korean
airspace, aviation experts say, complicating airline operations as
tensions rise between the rival nations.
In late May, North Korea began floating thousands of balloons with bags
of trash, including human excrement, suspended under them into South
Korea, in what analysts say is a form of psychological warfare.
Hundreds of balloons landed in the South during seven waves between May
29 and June 27, including one on a runway at Incheon airport, forcing a
three-hour suspension of takeoffs and landings at its biggest
international gateway.
When the balloons first appeared, aviation navigation interference from
North Korea also spiked, including what appears to be the first bout of
so-called "spoofing" affecting commercial aircraft in the South.
"Airspace safety is gradually deteriorating," OPSGROUP, a
membership-based organization that shares flight risk information, said
in a June bulletin. "There are no official airspace warnings for South
Korea, but the risk situation seems to be getting worse."
South Korea's transport ministry said its military, air traffic control
authorities and airlines maintain a 24-hour surveillance and
communication system.
"The South Korean military detects these balloons using surveillance
assets… day and night," a military spokesperson said, without giving
further details.
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North Korea, which also launched trash balloons in 2016, says they were
retaliation for propaganda campaigns by North Korean defectors and
activists in the South who send items via balloon.
'QUITE COMPLICATED'
The balloon flights have several times shut down operations at Incheon,
the world's fifth-busiest international airport and an important cargo
hub, about 40 km (25 miles) from North Korea.
The balloons have made flying in the area "quite complicated", said Yun
Chan Hwang, general manager of network operations for Korean Air Lines,
which has adapted procedures to deal with the new hazard.
If northerly winds are expected, the airline adds fuel to flight plans
so aircraft can stay aloft longer or divert to alternative airports, Yun
said.
Disruption caused by the balloon campaign is being exacerbated by
increased signs of interference to the Global Positioning System (GPS),
a network of satellites and receivers used for navigation.
Militaries and other actors can broadcast signals that trick a GPS
system into thinking it is somewhere it is not.
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![](../images/071024PIX/news_a54.jpg)
A plastic bag carrying various objects including what appeared to be
trash that crossed inter-Korean border with a balloon believed to
have been sent by North Korea, is pictured in Seoul, in this picture
provided and released by the Defense Ministry, June 2, 2024. The
Defense Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/ File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jul/10/images/ads/current/aeps_lda_013124.png)
"This could lead pilots to drift off course, with the risk of
straying into North Korean airspace," said Kari Bingen, the
aerospace security project director at the Washington-based Centre
for Strategic and International Studies.
Between May 29 and June 2 about 500 planes and hundreds of ships
experienced GPS problems, South Korea's government said. It
complained to U.N. aviation body ICAO, which warned North Korea to
stop.
CONSTANT RISK
GPS interruptions in the South from North Korea have occurred for
more than a decade, but spoofing appears new, said SkAI, a Swiss
company that runs a live disruption map.
SkAI detected spoofing in South Korean airspace between May 29 and
June 2 that affected dozens of planes, co-founder Benoit Figuet
said.
"Some of the impacted airplanes were flying quite low in altitude.
We even have seen airplanes being spoofed while being on the
ground," Figuet said.
Notifications to pilots issued by South Korea in May and June warned
planes flying around Incheon and Seoul to "exercise extreme caution
when using GPS".
No major aviation accident has been linked to GPS spoofing globally,
but a business jet flying from Europe to Dubai nearly entered
Iranian airspace without clearance in September 2023, OPSGROUP said.
North Korea said last year it would shoot down anything it deemed a
reconnaissance flight entering its airspace.
Most airlines avoid North Korean airspace. The U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration bans overflights of North Korea for reasons including
unannounced ballistic missile tests, air defense capabilities and
potential electronic warfare.
"South Korea's airspace is at constant risk of instability caused by
some kind of political crisis," OPSGROUP said. "Things have
potential to change quickly, and without warning."
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Ju-min Park in Seoul. Editing by
Gerry Doyle and Jamie Freed)
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