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Japanese Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya

Japanese Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya responded to the South Korean government’s announcement that a Japanese patrol aircraft had made a “threatening” low-altitude flyby of a South Korean naval vessel by insisting that the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) were “engaged in appropriate vigilance and monitoring activities.”

Appearing on Jan. 7 at a joint meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) security research commission, Iwaya said, “The records clearly state that the JSDF aircraft was engaged in appropriate vigilance and monitoring activities within Japan’s EEZ [exclusive economic zone],” according to a report by the NHK network.

“We would like to explain this to the international community and continue to hold discussions between Japanese and South Korean defense authorities,” he was also reported as saying.

The same day, the Japanese Defense Ministry released additional footage with Korean subtitles. The video in question was the same patrol aircraft footage they released on Dec. 28.

Some attendees at the LDP security research commission meeting proposed “ending discussions with South Korean defense authorities and putting the issue before the UN Security Council,” or “determining exactly what the South Korean military was doing in Japan’s EEZ when it claimed to have rescued a North Korean fishing boat.” Others ever called for temporarily recalling the Japanese ambassador to South Korea and disclosing the radar frequencies collected by JSDF. Commission Chairman and former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera called the footage released by South Korea “baseless” and stressed the “need to strongly protest to the South Korean government and state Japan’s position clearly to the rest of the world.”

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]