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.
Defense chiefs order stern action against Japan's threatening flybys
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo speaks on his visit to the Naval Operations Command in Busan, Saturday. / Yonhap
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo ordered the Navy to take a stern response to Japanese warplanes' low-altitude flyovers.
During a visit to the Naval Operations Command (NOC) in the country's southern port city of Busan on Jan. 26, Minister Jeong was briefed about four cases of maritime provocations by Japan's warplanes making low-altitude flights since last Dec. 20, the defense ministry said, Saturday.
He called the recent four cases of Japanese airplanes making low-altitude flights close to Korean naval vessels “acts that can't be understood and accepted by any navies around the world.” But Jeong did not specify in detail what countermeasures the ministry is considering applying.
The visit to the NOC, which was made without prior notice, was in response to Japan's Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya's visit to the Kanagawa Prefecture's Atsugi naval airbase a day earlier. The Atsugi base is where Japan's patrol planes are stationed, including the one Japan claims a South Korean ship targeted with a radar.
On a related note, Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Park Han-ki asked military units to minimize time to actively take on Japan's patrol planes' low-altitude flyovers and to establish a swift and accurate report system. The message was delivered in his first letter of command to military units, according to the JCS, Saturday.
The JCS is in the process of specifying its manual on responding to Japan's patrol aircrafts' low-altitude flybys including a plan to have South Korean naval destroyers send warning signals when they are within 16 kilometers of a patrol aircraft of another country. Currently Korean destroyers are asked to send the signals when a patrol plane of another country approaches within 8 kilometers.
The JCS is considering dispatching a South Korean patrol aircraft when Japan's patrol planes make threatening flybys, if there any in operation nearby.
South Korea condemned Japanese warplanes' low-altitude flight near South Korean warships, calling it a “provocative act,” while Japan flatly denied South Korea's allegation asking Seoul to resolve the recent issue through open communication. But recent bilateral talks between military officials from both countries failed to produce breakthroughs.
Amid strained relations, Japan will likely scuttle the planned dispatch of its Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyer to Busan for a spring joint maritime drill, according to Japanese media reports.
Japan planned to deploy the Izumo, which carries helicopters, to Busan to participate in a joint maritime drill by ASEAN plus eight countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, the United States and Russia.
Japan claims a South Korean naval destroyer, the Gwanggaeto the Great, locked a fire control radar on its MSDF P-1 patrol aircraft on Dec. 20. South Korea has denied this claim, stating the South Korean warship was on an operation to rescue a North Korean ship that was drifting into international waters in the East Sea.
Iwaya said the Japanese government has protested against “South Korea's use of its radar” as “an extremely dangerous act” and called for the recurrence of such cases to be prevented.