North Korea's state radio station resumed broadcasting mysterious numbers Sunday that could be some kind of coded message to its agents that may be operating in South Korea.
Radio Pyongyang, started broadcasting messages shortly after midnight (Seoul time), calling out a series of pages and numbers.
This marks the third broadcast this month and comes as Pyongyang has stepped up its attacks against the Seoul government over the scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's confidante.
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The influence-peddling scandal that broke out in late October has paralyzed the orderly running of the government with large numbers of people demanding that Park step down. The North has been very critical of the conservative Park administration, which has maintained a hard-line stance against the communist country.
The radio announcer said, "(I'm giving) chemistry review work to No. 21 expedition agents." The content was the same as that transmitted in the early hours of Nov. 6.
Since June 24, North Korea has sent out a total of 14 encrypted numbers broadcasts, with the last being broadcast on Nov. 11.
Broadcasts of mysterious numbers are considered 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by using a reference book, although many intelligence officials believe this form of sending orders to be totally outdated.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 psychological strategy aimed at sparking internal discord within South Korea.
Pyongyang had suspended such broadcasts in 2000, when the two Koreas held their first historic summit. (Yonhap)
