South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has launched a joint civil, government and military review of its readiness to respond to GPS signal jamming.

The ministry conducted a simulated drill at 2 p.m. on Tuesday to check preparedness for GPS signal jamming during the 2026 Ulchi exercise period, based on an assumed real-world situation.

GPS signal jamming refers to transmitting interfering signals stronger than GPS reception signals in the GPS frequency band to disrupt normal use of related services. If jamming occurs, it can disrupt not only location information for land, sea and air transport but also reception of timing information in the communications, power and financial sectors.

The drill took place at the Central Radio Management Service and in the Paju area. Participants included the ministry, military agencies such as the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, related ministries including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and mobile carriers such as KT.

The exercise assumed a complex situation in which jamming occurred simultaneously at 2 locations in Paju and the source of interference moved. The scenario also included one jammer approaching a key national energy facility and attempting disruption.

Immediately after detecting the jamming, the ministry received reports from relevant agencies including the transport ministry, the oceans ministry and mobile carriers on disruptions affecting aircraft, ships and base stations. It carried out initial measures including issuing a GPS jamming crisis alert and sharing the situation with relevant agencies. To detect and remove the jamming sources, it also worked with the military to dispatch 4 jamming-tracking teams and 1 mobile strike unit to the scene.

Agencies also carried out safety measures to prevent damage to private-sector transport and communications services. The transport ministry issued an aviation notice to airmen warning of GPS use and responded to prevent disruption to aircraft operations by using alternative navigation and ground navigation safety facilities and support from air traffic control agencies.

The oceans ministry worked with the coast guard to strengthen guidance on safe operations and navigation cautions and to switch to alternative navigation such as radar and terrestrial signals. Mobile carriers also took steps to maintain stability of communications services through network synchronization and other measures.

The government plans to strengthen preparedness for GPS jamming by reflecting improvements identified during the drill in its crisis-response manual.

The ministry said, "As GPS jamming can also affect national critical infrastructure, we will continue to check our ability to respond to complex jamming through joint civil-government-military drills."