Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Japan's audio file possibly tampered: defense ministry
The captured image shows Japan's P-1 patrol plane, circled, and the South Korean warship Gwanggaeto the Great, below. / Captured from Youtube
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Audio files disclosed by Japan with regard to a spat over radar use appear to have been tampered with, a defense ministry official said Tuesday, a day after they were released.
Japan's defense ministry uploaded two files on its website Monday, claiming these provided evidence that a South Korean warship targeted a Japanese patrol aircraft with a fire control radar, Dec. 20.
The official said if files are of raw data, they would contain other sounds.
“This is not the case with the files disclosed by Japan, which only contain the information it is seen to have been left with after being tampering with,” the official told reporters.
Japan also did not present any other data, including the time of the recording.
Japanese officials had offered to present the files during a meeting with their South Korean counterparts in Singapore last week. But South Korean officials said they declined to hear the files, as there was no point if Japan was not going to disclose the time of the recordings, the official said.
Another official said Japan's P-1 patrol plane's response did not appear to be the proper one if it had been targeted with a fire-control radar.
Locking a fire control radar is done to establish a weapons lock for a possible attack, the official said.
“Usually, the operator of the plane would maximize speed and get away from the threat.”
“But in the footage of Japan's patrol plane released on Dec. 28, the aircraft does not accelerate and the operator's voice appears to be relaxed,” the official said.
In addition, in the recording of the operator's remarks in the released footage, the operator does not say “detected” but “observed” the radar, whereas “detected” would be the language used if a radar was indeed targeted on the aircraft.
Seoul's stance is that it did not use a fire control radar. The Gwanggaeto the Great, the South Korean warship that is being accused by Japan, was conducting a humanitarian rescue operation involving a North Korean boat that was drifting in international waters in the East Sea.
South Korea has been calling for Japan to provide its radar frequency data, which will serve as decisive evidence as to whether fire control radar was used. However, Tokyo has refused to disclose this, citing it was classified information.
Seoul has called for accurate evidence, and for experts of each country to verify it.
Japan's defense ministry stated Monday that it will cease talks on the matter with South Korea, citing they would not help in “determining the truth.”
South Korea's defense ministry said it will leave the door open for talks.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono are set to meet Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos for bilateral discussions on pending issues. They will likely discuss the radar row.