Dec 29, 2018 (NHK) - Japan's Defense Ministry has released a video to back up its claim that a South Korean naval ship directed its fire-control radar at a Japanese patrol plane last week.
The ministry says the South Korean destroyer leveled the radar at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's P-1 patrol aircraft over the Sea of Japan on December 20th, in what it called a dangerous act.
South Korea denies the claim. It says the destroyer was using radar to search for a drifting North Korean ship.
The roughly 13-minute footage was released on Friday, one day after defense officials from the two sides held their first talks on the incident and failed to narrow their differences.
The video was shot by the crew of the patrol plane. Japanese defense officials say they added subtitles and partly erased the audio, but did nothing more.
In the video, the Japanese crewmembers can be heard reporting "FC contact," indicating that the plane was being tracked by a fire-control radar.
The footage also includes audio of the Japanese crew repeatedly asking the South Korean side in English why the antenna for its fire-control radar was pointing at the Japanese patrol plane. The South Korean side apparently did not respond.
Defense Ministry officials say they've analyzed data collected by the patrol plane and confirmed that it was "hit multiple times continuously over a certain period" by waves unique to fire-control radars.
Source: ANNnewsCH
