B777-200
Dispatch Dispatcher
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors
Someone in Flight Planning Support disabled the 'autofiling function' on flights assigned to my Dispatch desk on the date in question. In essence; the AFTN addresses that are automatically attached to dispatch releases in order to submit flight plans to all enroute ATC centers was removed for some unknown reason. This was not realized until sometime during the PM shift when RJJJ ATC Center called stating they did not have flight plans on file for many of our flights that were already enroute. This is an extremely serious issue; especially in light that the Company and Flight Support specifically are promoting the use of portions of North Korean airspace. Fortunately; we were contacted by governments that are friendly to the US. HOWEVER; what IF [a certain] flight plan did not reach the North Korean ATC?  Once the issue was discovered by RJJJ ATC the PM Dispatcher had to re-file all the flight plans that were enroute which significantly increased workload.Flight planning needs to notify the dispatcher(s) of their intentions and a Center or Sector Manager prior to taking any action which involves calculating flight plans and/or the format by which they are presented.
When someone failed to actuate the autofiling to enroute ATC centers function of flight plans by dispatchers a number of trans-Pacific flights departed without ATC coordination; causing pilots; ATC; and dispatchers to play catch up.