Japanese national broadcaster NHK apologized for comments made during an NHK Radio Chinese-language news broadcast on August 19.

According to NHK, at around 1PM on the 19th, an outsourced employee read the comments on air on Radio 2 and other international broadcasts.

The employee, who is a Chinese national, translated the news and read it on air, and added that the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture were Chinese territory.

This and other comments that went on for about 20 seconds were not in the original script.

Contracted by an organization affiliated with NHK, NHK has said that it intends to terminate the contract.

The broadcaster apologized for the incident, saying that the statements made that were unrelated to the news were inappropriate. 

NHK also said it will take thorough measures to ensure that incidents such as these will not occur again.