Japan defense chief makes first boarding on South Korean naval ship

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani visited a South Korean naval ship and interacted with its crew on Thursday at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
It is the first time Japan’s defense minister has boarded a South Korean military vessel, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.
Nakatani’s visit was aimed at demonstrating defense cooperation between Japan and South Korea and deepening exchanges between the two sides in light of their improving relations.
Since an 2018 incident in which a South Korean destroyer pointed its fire control radar at an MSDF surveillance plane, no South Korean military ships had visited Japanese ports until this time, except for an international fleet review in 2022.
In June this year, the two countries’ defense chiefs agreed on measures to prevent a similar incident.
Nakatani, who took office in early October, had originally planned to visit the Yokosuka base at the end of the month, but postponed the visit in the wake of North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile and rescheduled it to coincide with the South Korean ship’s visit.