Ieodo: icon of sea and peace > 언론 속 이어도

• 목록
• 답변

\r\n

Ieodo: icon of sea and peace

\r\n

\r\n

By Koh Choong-suk

\r\n

\r\n

Goodgle Earth has invaded by some Chinese "patriots" who claimed that Ieodo is their rock, and stole our photo of the Ieodo ocean research station and attached it to support their claim. This is ridiculous! No, it is hilarious. Please see it.

\r\n

\r\n

All Korea Times readers should check what I am reporting here in this column. Google Earth is a respectable source for the world's geographers and map users. But it has been marred by some "cheap shots."

\r\n

\r\n

I don't think it is just hilarious. Ieodo will be a "serious" rock
 someday, if such patriots in China are continuously invading Ieodo. China and Korea have not agreed to draw a boundary line in the East China Sea.

\r\n

\r\n

China, as a matter of fact, claims that the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are virtually its own. China just accepts Korea's coastal waters of 12 nautical miles. It has insisted on ownership of the continental shelf and natural prolongation of its land into the sea.

\r\n

\r\n

Ieodo is located in the overlapping EEZs of China and Korea, but it is inside Korea's sea territory when the two nations draw the median line. It is closer to Marado than to any China's islet. When Korea was constructing the ocean research station on Ieodo in the mid-1990s, China protested the construction work, saying it was not Korea's rock. It is true that the two nations agreed that Ieodo is neither nation's rock based on the Law of the Sea Article 121 (3).

\r\n

\r\n

However, this article does not make good sense and is now outdated. Useless rocks and islets can be utilized for human welfare by ever-changing science and technology. Korea has made the first case of this on Ieodo in the world.

\r\n

\r\n

Article 121 (3) reads: Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

\r\n

\r\n

Korea does not want to use Ieodo for extending or expanding its own sea territory. It is already within Korea's EEZ and continental shelf.

\r\n

\r\n

Needles to say, Ieodo cannot sustain human habitation or an economic life of its own, but it generates much valuable information about changing ocean temperatures and schools of fish via the ocean research tower. It has more than economic value. How can we convert the value of scientific information into monetary value?

\r\n

\r\n

Ieodo will be the first human utilization of rocks in the past with the help of modern science and technology. There are many such rocks and islets in the oceans. For the future, I would like to propose that rocks and islets should belong to the nearest human settlements ― land or island.

\r\n

\r\n

Proximity to a human settlement is a commonsense or simple rule to resolve conflicts. This guarantees objectivity and mathematical precision to deny disputes based on endless claims. It happens that Dokdo is closer to Ulleungdo ― a human settlement ― than to Oki Island, Japan.

\r\n

\r\n

Ieodo is also closer to Marado than to any island of China. The midline concept or equidistance has been a salient product of the international community. This proposal is not sophisticated at all. If and when seabed resources cannot be separated between and among the nations, then exploration can be jointly pursued on equitable cost-sharing and benefit-sharing.

\r\n

\r\n

Proximity or closer distance between uninhabitable rocks and islands and neighboring human settlements is the simplest method of resolving territorial disputes. This method is not really new. Equidistance method has proved significantly more popular as the basis for international maritime boundary agreements over time.

\r\n

\r\n

As geometrically exact expressions of the midline concept, equidistance lines offer objectivity, mathematical precision and, assuming agreement exists with regard to relevant baselines, lack of ambiguity. This is especially the case for delimitations between opposite coasts where equidistance-based solutions represent the dominant approach to an overwhelming degree.

\r\n

\r\n

Equidistance based delimitation lines provide 89 percent of delineated maritime boundaries with an opposite coastal relationship. Inevitably, in the construction of equidistance lines, issues related to coastal geography become critical in the delimitation equation.

\r\n

\r\n

The United Nations should accept my new proposal for future sea territorial disputes ― the sooner, the better. This new proposal will bring peace on the seas.

\r\n

\r\n

Dr. Koh, former president of Cheju National University, is president of the
Society for Ieodo Research.

\r\n

\r\n

2010 /11/15/ - The Korea Times - Opinion