Refuel row: Japan rescinds airbase access to South Korean aerobatics team

Tokyo has rescinded a plan to allow South Korean military jets to refuel at a base in Okinawa after learning the aircraft had recently flown near contested islets in the Sea of Japan, a revelation that triggered nationalist anger and concerns about the political risks of closer defence ties between the uneasy neighbours.

The now-scrapped refuelling operation would have seen South Korea’s Black Eagles aerobatic team stop over at Naha Air Base in Okinawa en route to an air show in Dubai in early November.

But the plan was dropped after Japan’s government learned the unit had conducted training flights in October around the Dokdo islets – rocky outcrops off the Korean peninsula’s east coast that are administered by South Korea but have been claimed by Tokyo since the end of World War II.

Japan refers to the islands as Takeshima and regards them as part of Shimane Prefecture, about 220km (137 miles) to the south.

The refuelling stop would have marked the first time South Korean military aircraft had used a Japanese base and was intended as a gesture of growing defence cooperation, according to a report by the Yomiuri newspaper on Monday.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was informed that the Black Eagles had carried out training over the disputed islands shortly before her first meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju on Thursday.