Japan's military yesterday shadowed an unidentified submarine that entered its territorial waters the day before, but officials said they had not yet figured out what country the intruder was from.
Tokyo put its navy on alert on Wednesday after spotting the submarine off Okinawa, and sent a reconnaissance plane and destroyer to follow its movements.
The sub, which spent two hours in Japanese waters before leaving, was heading north yesterday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference.
He refused to confirm media reports that defense officials believe the vessel is from China, saying: ``We don't have enough conclusive evidence to make a determination.''
He said it would take some time to identify the submarine because it hasn't surfaced and didn't appear to be heading toward a specific country. Hosoda said Tokyo hasn't confronted any countries about the incident.
Judging from its cruising sound, however, the Defense Agency believed the vessel to be a Chinese navy Han-type nuclear submarine, Japan's mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun and Jiji Press news agency said.
The Japanese navy has been trailing the submarine with two destroyers and a surveillance airplane, a defense agency spokesman said.
Officials have refused to confirm media reports that Tokyo was investigating a possible link between the sub sighting and China's recent exploration of natural gas fields in Japan's southern waters.
Yomiuri said defense officials suspect Beijing may have sent the vessel to head off criticism from Tokyo about China's recent surveys for gas fields near Okinawa.
Territorial disputes have occasionally flared up between Japan, China and South Korea, including one that has deepened in recent months with Beijing over natural gas deposits in the East China Sea.
Tokyo has accused China of conducting surveys for gas fields near Okinawa that extend into Japanese territorial waters. China says its activities are close to its coast and don't concern Japan and has rejected offering more details.
Meanwhile, China yesterday said it knew nothing about a submarine that entered Japanese waters near a disputed gas field and sparked a high seas chase.
"We don't know. We are not aware of this situation," the foreign ministry said in China's first response to the incident.
While the Xinhua news agency ran a brief report from Tokyo about the unidentified sub on Wednesday, it has filed nothing since and the story failed to appear in any major state-run media yesterday.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS