South Korea declined US' proposed date for trilateral air drills with Japan: Report

By Anadolu staff

ISTANBUL (AA) - South Korea has rejected a US proposal to stage a trilateral air drill with Japan this month as the proposed date was right before Tokyo's annual commemoration of its territorial claim to a cluster of disputed islands, local media reported on Monday.

Last month, the US proposed holding trilateral drills with Seoul and Tokyo in February, but the proposed schedule overlapped with this year's Lunar New Year holiday of Feb. 15-18 and was also right before Japan's celebratory event, Yonhap News reported, citing unnamed sources.

In 2005, A Japanese province designated Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" to hold a regional event to assert Japan's territorial claim to the Dokdo islets, which has long been a recurring source of tension between Tokyo and Seoul.

The disputed islets are known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

Seoul lodged a protest against Tokyo on Sunday after a senior Japanese official attended the “Takeshima Day” event.

South Korea, for its part, suggested rescheduling the date of the trilateral drills so they would be staged far before Japan's regional event.

It also proposed conducting a bilateral aerial exercise with Washington after Japan's commemoration.

But Washington turned down Seoul's offer earlier this month and notified South Korea of its plan to stage a solo aerial drill this time.

South Korea also lodged a protest with the US Forces Korea early this week over its rare standoff with Chinese fighter jets during a training aircraft drill over the Yellow Sea.

US and Chinese fighter jets engaged in a brief standoff over the Yellow Sea on Wednesday during an air exercise of the US Air Force, which involved 10 F-16 fighter jets.

The F-16 jets reportedly flew to an area between the respective air defense identification zones of South Korea and China. The move prompted the Chinese military to dispatch its own fighter jets to the scene, but no clash occurred.