Japan's low-altitude flybys could be discussed at naval symposium: Defense ministry

Arirang News 2019-01-28

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국방부 "4월 서태평양해군 심포지엄에서 일본 위협비행 논의 가능성"

Tensions have risen sharply between Seoul and Tokyo in recent weeks... over low-altitude flights by Japanese planes near South Korean warships.
According to the nation's defense ministry, the issue could be put on the table at this year's Western Pacific Naval Symposium, a forum for countries in the region to discuss naval affairs.
Kan Hyeong-woo has our top story.
On Monday, Seoul's Ministry of National Defense said the dispute over the Japanese warplanes' "agressive," low-altitude flybys could be discussed in working-level talks at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium... set for April.
"If there's a need to talk about the flybys at the working-level meeting,... then it should be discussed so regulations and guidelines can be established to prevent similiar incidents in the future."
If the matter does come up at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium,... then a guideline for evaluating the flights... could be the Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea, or CUES.
The CUES was signed at the symposium in 2014... by 21 Pacific nations,... including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan to prevent tensions escalating between different countries' militaries at sea.
Meanwhile,... Japan is reportedly rethinking its plan to send warships to an international maritime exercise that will begin in waters off the Korean Peninisula from late April to early May.
But Seoul's Defense Ministry says a final decision on which countries will join the exercise and on what scale... will be made in working-level talks between the participating countries likely to take place at the end of February.
Tensions seemed to rise late last week also... when the South Korean defense minister paid a visit on Saturday to Naval Operations Command in Busan,... following a trip by the Japanese defense minister the day before to a naval airbase near Yokohama.
Experts have suggested that Japan could be using the military dispute to increase public support for the Abe administration.
The military spat erupted back in December when Japan claimed that a South Korean warship used its targeting radar on a Japanese plane,... something Seoul says there is no evidence for.
And last week, Seoul's Defense Ministry released photographs of a Japanese warplane conducting a low-altitude flyby.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News

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