SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's defense ministry on Friday expressed deep concern and regret over Japan's release of footage filmed by a Japanese surveillance aircraft on which Tokyo claimed a South Korean navy destroyer locked a fire-control radar.
Choi Hyun-soo, spokesperson of South Korea's defense ministry, told a press briefing that the destroyer was in the normal operation at the time to rescue a fishing boat of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the East Sea.
There has been no change in the fact that the South Korean military did not lock a fire control radar on the Japanese patrol plane, the spokesperson said.
The radar lock itself does no damage to a target, but it can be seen threatening as it is a step away from launching a missile against the target.
Japan's defense ministry released a footage earlier in the day, filmed on Dec. 20 by the Japanese P-1 patrol aircraft, to claim that the South Korean destroyer directed its fire control radar against it.
The Seoul spokesperson expressed deep concern and regret over the footage release as it came just a day after military officials of South Korea and Japan held a teleconference talks over the radar row.
During the working-level teleconference on Thursday, the two sides exchanged views over facts and technical analysis to remove misunderstandings, according to Seoul's defense ministry.
The ministry said in a statement that the talks were held in a friendly and sincere atmosphere and the two sides agreed to continue working-level consultations.
The spokesperson told the press briefing that it was very disappointing for the Japanese patrol aircraft to be in a low-altitude, threatening flight near the South Korean destroyer, which was focusing on the humanitarian rescue operation for the DPRK fishing boat.
The spokesperson said the released footage cannot be an objective evidence to support what Japan claimed as it simply included the Japanese patrol plane's turning and the pilot's dialogue, urging the Japanese side to provide concrete evidence to support its claim.
