By ANTARA News,
Seoul : South Korea has signed a 90-million-dollar deal with Indonesia to buy four transport planes for the coastguard, officials said Tuesday.
Under the deal signed on Monday, Indonesia will deliver four CN235-110 aircraft by 2011, the Defense Acquisition Programme Administration said.
“They will be used for various missions,” a spokesman told AFP, adding the plane, which is equipped with an advanced radar system, is already used by South Korea’s air force.
Yonhap news agency said the coastguard would use the Indonesian aircraft to patrol waters around a group of Seoul-controlled islands midway between South Korea and Japan.
Called Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, the tiny islands have for decades been a flashpoint in relations, with both sides claiming sovereignty.
Japan claimed them in 1905 after winning a war with Russia. It went on to annex the entire Korean peninsula from 1910 until its World War II defeat in 1945.
Seoul has taken measures to cement its claims to the islands, including staging a military exercise nearby. A small South Korean police contingent is stationed on them.