Tokyo (AFP) - Japan will launch a special police unit equipped with submachine guns and helicopters to patrol disputed isles in the East China Sea -- a source of tension between Tokyo and Beijing, according to police and media.

The deployment near the tiny islands known as the "Senkakus" in Japanese and the "Diaoyu" in Chinese could take place early next year, public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.

The National Police Agency said it had put in a budget request for an additional 159 officers to head off "ilegal landings on remote islands by armed groups". NHK said it was the first time police had stepped up patrols near the disputed islands.

However, extra jets from the Japan Coastguard were deployed in 2018 to patrol the islands, where a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine was spotted earlier last year.

The uninhabited islets are at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing, which is also involved in a widening dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over islands in the South China Sea.

The Japanese government has long complained about China's routine dispatch of coastguard ships to waters surrounding the islands.

Relations between Japan and China deteriorated in 2012 when Tokyo "nationalised" some of the islets.

===========================================================

무장부분에서 우리나라 독도경비대와 비슷한 건지 아닌지는 정확하게 비교 파악이  아직 안됩니다.

머지않아 일본본토내 주둔 다케시마 경비대를 만든다고 설치지는 않을지....ㅎㅎㅎㅎ

왜놈들이 이상한짓을 잘하니까요.....