Unidentified sub enters Japanese waters

[wade]

November 10, 2004

Unidentified sub enters Japanese waters



TOKYO (Kyodo) — An unidentified submarine entered Japanese waters Wednesday for about two hours from around 6 a.m., Japan’s Defense Agency officials said, with agency sources adding that the vessel is suspected of being Chinese.
The intrusion prompted the Japanese government to order the Maritime Self-Defense Force to take security action for only the second time ever, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said. But he conceded later in the day that it was only after the submarine left Japanese waters that the order was issued.

Japanese P-3C patrol planes detected the submarine, which entered Japanese territorial waters off a chain of islets in Okinawa in the early morning from the south and proceeded toward the north, the agency said.

Hosoda said in an afternoon news conference that “the submarine’s country of origin is unknown.” But agency sources said Wednesday night that based on sounds captured from the vessel’s engine, it is likely to be a Chinese Han class nuclear attack submarine.

“It would be difficult to determine the identity if the submarine does not surface,” a senior MSDF official said on condition of anonymity.

The P-3C planes, along with two destroyers and their helicopters, continued to track the vessel Wednesday even after it entered open sea, according to the agency.

The MSDF has been tracking the sub since early Tuesday but no warning shot was fired.

A Han class submarine has a displacement of 5,550 tons when submerged and is about 98-106 meters long. As the Chinese navy’s first nuclear sub that became fully operational in the 1980s, it has a diving depth of 300 meters and is believed to be able to carry 75 crew members.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry remained silent Wednesday over the incident.
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