V15 is a unique numbers station in the way it transmits to their countries own radio station via Radio Pyongyang. It emits in AM on all Radio Pyongyang frequencies. It is also the only numbers station to ever transmit on FM, which began starting on June 23rd, 2016.
V15 was first observed in the 80’s, and ceased activity in 2001. V15 became active again in June, 2016 with a new message format. North Korea faced criticism from the South Korean government when it began transmitting again.
Message activity in 2016-2017 has been observed in 3320, 3250 and 6400 kHz. The new 2016 schedule shows activity on Thursdays at 16:15 UTC and on Saturday Nights at 15:15 UTC.
V15 Message Recording
Since the announced time zone change the transmissions have been observed on 14:45 UTC on Saturdays and 15:45 on Thursdays. Messages, however, are not in regular weekly interval.
It has been reported that it had sent a message on 16:15 UTC at Friday (April 14, 2017) although it may had been involved with special “Day of Sun” celebrations on April 15 and served as greeting message for the agents.
V15 is now inactive and was last spotted in September of 2019.
Here is a full recording with the musical intro and outro. The message repeated twice. Recorded on April 27th, 2017
Message translation
Message format: XXXYY – XXX: page number YY: problem number
From now, we will send IT Basic Practice problems for Agents No. 27. Now, we will tell the number of problems. 823 pg No. 69 467 pg No. 92 957 pg No. 100 830 pg No. 07 694 pg No. 89 429 pg No. 95 916 pg No. 39 347 pg No. 48 684 pg No. 42 917 pg No. 41 754 pg No. 70 146 pg No. 23 883 pg No. 98 980 pg No. 43 672 pg No. 61 075 pg No. 25 2242 pg No. 47 412 pg No. 66 455 pg No. 39 813 pg No. 49 661 pg No. 89 582 pg No. 97 111 pg No. 75 470 pg No. 43 512 pg No. 49 287 pg No. 90 880 pg No. 64 044 pg No. 83 519 pg No. 56 907 pg No. 95 112 pg No. 11 275 pg No. 25 686 pg No. 72 086 pg No. 91 948 pg No. 21 173 pg No. 24 845 pg No. 31 844 pg No. 89 750 pg No. 08 611 pg No. 97 284 pg No. 02 190 pg No. 04 372 pg No. 53 116 pg No. 23 710 pg No. 17 339 pg No. 45 411 pg No. 78 775 pg No. 21 797 pg No. 51 378 pg No. 13 021 pg No. 55 812 pg No. 61 639 pg No. 43 926 pg No. 81 971 pg No. 100 763 pg No. 50 058 pg No. 92 662 pg No. 28 717 pg No. 94 339 pg No. 54 518 pg No. 68 167 pg No. 20 121 pg No. 92 220 pg No. 16 558 pg No. 95 738 pg No. 04 723 pg No. 87 599 pg No. 33 719 pg No. 19 862 pg No. 73 412 pg No. 57 166 pg No. 93 064 pg No. 85 971 pg No. 20 856 pg No. 90 581 pg No. 36 101 pg No. 82 477 pg No. 95 112 pg No. 89 132 pg No. 45 939 pg No. 64. We will repeat. (Same Numbers). That is all.
As a number stations message it converts into:
From now, we will send IT Basic Practice problems for Agents No. 27. Now, we will tell the number of problems. 82369 46792 957100 83007 69489 42995 91639 34748 68442 91741 75470 14623 88398 98043 67261 07525 224247 41266 45539 81349 66189 58297 11175 47043 51249 28790 88064 04483 51956 90795 11211 27525 68672 08691 94821 17324 84531 84489 75008 61197 28402 19004 37253 11623 71017 33945 41178 77521 79751 37813 02155 81261 63943 92681 971100 76350 05892 66228 71794 33954 51868 16720 12192 22016 55895 73804 72387 59933 71919 86273 41257 16693 06485 97120 85690 58136 10182 47795 11289 13245 93964. We will repeat. (Same Numbers). That is all.
Translation provided by HLKA FM
Station Structure
The usual Radio Pyongyang broadcast is interrupted by a musical score that determines recipient of the message, then the message follows: “Now we’ll begin a mathematics review assignment for members of the 27th expeditionary unit of the distance learning university,”
A message then consists of: “Turn to page 459, question 35; 913, question 55; 135, question 86.”
“The 27th expeditionary unit” indicated the agent ID 27 and who has a special musical score “We Will Go Together with a Song Of Joy” played before the message. The Agent 21 song is “Spring in My Hometown”
On April 7th, 2018 a new agent 213 appeared with a new interval signal known as General Star.
Numbers Station Summary
Nickname: Radio Pyongyang
Activity: Inactive
Emission mode: USB + Carrier, AM, FM
Voice Summary: Male and female live announcer in Korean.
Believed Country of Origin: North Korea
Sources & Media
Numbers & Oddities Issue #16
North Korean RDEI, 1980s-2000/2016-Present
From Pyongyang with love: North Korea restarts coded spy broadcasts – Reuters
How to find the Pyongyang numbers station (V15) including an off-air recording
N. Korea sends radio broadcast of new encrypted numbers ahead of key anniversaries – Yonhap News Agency
Gov’t condemns N. Korea’s resumption of encrypted number broadcasting – The Korea Times
N. Korea sends another encrypted numbers broadcast – Yonhap News Agency
