Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, Nov. 2 Kyodo - Japan confirmed that North Korea on Friday jammed a Japanese radio programme containing messages for any surviving Japanese victims of Pyongyang’s past abductions, and promptly reported the situation to a UN body, the communications ministry said.
It is the second time Tokyo has filed a complaint with the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union on the matter, following jamming that took place in March.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said it confirmed that North Korea jammed the programme “Shiokaze” with radio waves on the same frequency between 5:12 a.m. and 6:31 a.m. Friday.
The jamming may have affected reception of the programme and the ministry said it complained to the ITU that it is a violation of the UN body’s radio-frequency transmission rules.
Japan launched Shiokaze on March 26, sending messages from family members of people possibly abducted by Pyongyang and still residing in the country, for 30 minutes from 5:30 a.m. every day in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English.
The programme has been aired for 30 minutes from 11 p.m. daily since last Sunday.
(Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1212 gmt 2 Nov 07 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)