(MENAFN) The South Korean Navy has canceled joint search and rescue operations with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force originally slated for late November, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun disclosed Monday through government sources in both nations.

The move follows Japan's withdrawal of refueling privileges for South Korean military aircraft at an Okinawa base earlier this month. Officials reportedly discovered the jets had conducted recent flights near disputed islands in the Sea of Japan, triggering the reversal.

These bilateral exercises, conducted ten times from 1999 through 2017, were halted following a December 2018 confrontation involving Japanese patrol aircraft.

Military officials had viewed the planned resumption as emblematic of revitalized defense ties, according to a senior Defense Ministry official quoted by the publication.

The contested islands—known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea—remain under South Korean administration despite Japanese territorial claims. The uninhabited outcrops sit in the East Sea, referred to internationally as the Sea of Japan.

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