NK resumes encrypted numbers broadcast after 9-day break

North Korea's state radio station resumed broadcasting mysterious numbers Sunday after a nine-day break that could be some kind of coded message to its agents operating in South Korea.

An announcer at Radio Pyongyang, started reading a series of messages shortly after midnight (Seoul time), calling out a series of numbers.

The announcer said she is "giving review work in metal engineering to No. 21 expedition agents." The content was the same as those transmitted in the early hours of Oct. 9.

Since June 24, North Korea has sent out a total of 10 encrypted numbers broadcasts, with three being broadcast this month alone.

Broadcasts of mysterious numbers are a kind of book cipher that was often used by North Korea to give missions to spies operating in South Korea during the Cold War era. Spies could decode numbers to get orders by using a reference book, although many intelligence officials believe this form of sending orders to be totally outdated. Many have said the broadcast may be some sort of deception strategy aimed at sparking confusion within South Korea.

Pyongyang had initially suspended such broadcasts in 2000, when the two Koreas held their first historic summit.

Tensions are already running high on the divided peninsula after North Korea carried out its fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9 and the unsuccessful launching of two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile in recent weeks. (Yonhap)