국방부 "4월 서태평양해군 심포지엄에서 일본 위협비행 논의 가능성"<br /><br />Tensions have risen sharply between Seoul and Tokyo in recent weeks... over low-altitude flights by Japanese planes near South Korean warships.<br />According to the nation's defense ministry, the issue could be put on the table at this year's Western Pacific Naval Symposium, a forum for countries in the region to discuss naval affairs.<br />Kan Hyeong-woo has our top story. <br />On Monday, Seoul's Ministry of National Defense said the dispute over the Japanese warplanes' "agressive," low-altitude flybys could be discussed in working-level talks at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium... set for April.<br />"If there's a need to talk about the flybys at the working-level meeting,... then it should be discussed so regulations and guidelines can be established to prevent similiar incidents in the future." <br />If the matter does come up at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium,... then a guideline for evaluating the flights... could be the Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea, or CUES.<br />The CUES was signed at the symposium in 2014... by 21 Pacific nations,... including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan to prevent tensions escalating between different countries' militaries at sea. <br />Meanwhile,... Japan is reportedly rethinking its plan to send warships to an international maritime exercise that will begin in waters off the Korean Peninisula from late April to early May.<br />But Seoul's Defense Ministry says a final decision on which countries will join the exercise and on what scale... will be made in working-level talks between the participating countries likely to take place at the end of February. <br />Tensions seemed to rise late last week also... when the South Korean defense minister paid a visit on Saturday to Naval Operations Command in Busan,... following a trip by the Japanese defense minister the day before to a naval airbase near Yokohama.<br />Experts have suggested that Japan could be using the military dispute to increase public support for the Abe administration.<br />The military spat erupted back in December when Japan claimed that a South Korean warship used its targeting radar on a Japanese plane,... something Seoul says there is no evidence for.<br />And last week, Seoul's Defense Ministry released photographs of a Japanese warplane conducting a low-altitude flyby.<br />Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News <br />
