Japan and South Korea agree on measures to prevent further radar incidents

Singapore, June 1 (Jiji Press) — Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and his South Korean counterpart Shin Won-sik agreed on Saturday on measures to prevent a repeat of a 2018 incident in which a South Korean warship aimed its fire-control radar at a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force aircraft.

At their meeting in Singapore, Kihara and Shin also agreed to expand dialogue between the defense agencies of both countries, including resuming exchanges between their uniformed officers, to normalize relations between the two sides.

Preventive measures include strict adherence to the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, a multilateral code of conduct for naval ships and aircraft.

In the meantime, both sides did not elaborate on what actually happened in the 2018 incident, effectively putting the matter on hold.

After the radar incident in December 2018, when former South Korean President Moon Jae-in was in office, the Japanese side demanded an apology and preventive measures from the South Korean side. However, the South Korean side refused to admit that a South Korean warship had aimed its radar at an MSDF aircraft, claiming that the MSDF aircraft was flying at a low altitude to threaten the South Korean ship.

(Copyright: The Jiji Press, Ltd.)