ROK naval commander's visit to Japan postponed

SEOUL (Jiji Press)--The South Korean National Defense Ministry has put off a visit to Japan by a naval commander in charge of training, which had been scheduled for Monday as part of the two countries' defense exchange program, a ministry spokesman said.

The ministry made the decision after taking into account the current circumstances surrounding the two nations, the spokesman said.

According to sources in the ministry, a visit to Japan by an air force commander, originally slated for four days from Monday, has also been postponed.

The ministry spokesman said a regular defense exercise for Sea of Japan islands at the center of a South Korea-Japan territorial row will take place as planned from Friday.

Some officials in the South Korean government have called for the drill to be postponed in consideration of bilateral relations. But the government decided to go ahead with the drill because it is a regular event.

The scale of the exercise will be almost the same as usual, the spokesman said, but declined to go into detail.