Japan Releases New Evidence It Says Proves ROK Fire Control Radar was Used on Aircraft
The Abe administration must be getting a good domestic political bump from the radar issue with the ROK because you would think at this point they would just let it go:
The Defense Ministry announced Monday it will terminate talks with its South Korean counterpart over the radar lock-on dispute, while revealing what it claims are sounds, converted from radio waves, of the fire-control radar system of a South Korean destroyer.
Japan Times
The 18-second audio file, if genuine, reportedly shows that continuous, intense radar waves were directed at the P-1 anti-submarine patrol airplane operated by the Maritime Self-Defense Force on Dec. 20 in the Sea of Japan.
Japanese defense officials said the wave patterns are completely different from surface search radar waves that Seoul claimed were being used by the South Korean Navy’s Gwanggaeto destroyer.
“We believe a third party would be convinced that what we have said is true if they examine the sounds, a video footage and other materials in a comprehensive way,” said a senior Defense Ministry official who briefed reporters at the ministry, referring in particular to 13 minutes of video footage.
The video footage also included the voice of the pilot of the MSDF P-1 aircraft, who the ministry said heard the same radar sounds while flying near the destroyer.
Japanese officials said that they had identified FC (fire control) waves as being directed from the STIR-180 fire control system of the South Korean destroyer.
However, it is not yet clear — and is perhaps unlikely — that the newly-revealed evidence will put an end to the Tokyo-Seoul dispute.
“We express deep regrets over its decision to stop consultations designed to verify the facts,” Choi Hyun-soo, a spokeswoman for Seoul’s defense ministry, said of Tokyo’s move, according to Yonhap News Agency.
“The sounds that the Japanese side presented are just mechanical sounds from which we can never verify the pieces of information we have demanded — the detection date, angle and traits of electromagnetic waves,” she added.
You can read more at the link, but the Japanese Defense Ministry even admits this is not a smoking gun, but believe all the evidence released so far would convince a third party observer that a fire control radar was in fact used by the ROK on the Japanese aircraft.
This issue is not going to be completely resolved unless the Japanese release sensitive radar data collection evidence which they likely will not do. Releasing how sensitive their radar wave detection capability is just to make a political point against the ROK is probably not worth it.
Just all the more reason the Japanese should just lets this issue go:
