By Choi Yearn-hong
Ieodo is a rock under the waters in seas south of Korea, 149 km from Marado off Jeju Island. ``Do" is misleading to many Korean people, because it means island.
Ieodo is just a rock, not an island; however, the Jeju people call it an island. In the 1990s, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs built the marine science research tower there, which has since then provided valuable information on the currents, changing water temperature and schools of migrating fishes to Koreans.
So this rock is extending and expanding Korea's sea territory intellectually, if not physically. However, I don't mean to use Ieodo as the baseline as a start to Korea's sea territory.
Article 121 (3) of the Law of the Sea Convention states: ``Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf." Rocks therefore represent a disadvantaged sub-category of islands.
But Ieodo with its research tower has been channeling valuable sea information to Korea, so that it is functioning as an island, or more than an island. The Korean people including myself are grateful for the existence of Ieodo in Korean waters. Ieodo is known as Socotra Rock on international maps.
Ieodo has been an island where Jeju fishermen who could not return would live forever. It was a Utopian island or land in the mythical imagination of the Jeju people. Or it was a burial ground of the fishermen who didn't return from their fishing voyage.
As a poet and writer, I have spent some time reading other poets and writers' creative works. The late Lee Chung-joon's ``Ieodo" is the most famous novel and Chang Il-hong's ``Sea Woman Heading to Ieodo" is the most famous play. My poem may be one of the famous poems on Ieodo.
Ieodo
Ieodo is the last port of call
All fishermen visit
And their boats anchor in.
At the end of the sea,
There is Ieodo.
It is a Utopia, next world of Jeju fishermen and women.
Their dream is surfing on high white waves
Accompanied by the seagulls,
Attracting schools of fish and harvesting them.
Ieodo is only one island
Which does not appear above water on any maps
In this world.
So no one can steal it from Jeju people.
It is a secret island.
Ieodo is the last port of call
All fishermen visit
And their boats anchor in.
Now, a small research institute, Society for Ieodo Research, is conducting or sponsoring research work on Ieodo in many different academic disciplines: geology, oceanography, international law ― especially on laws of the oceans ― arts and mythology.
It is properly located at Jeju National University. I am glad to know that scholarly papers and monographs are coming out of the society. The society is a meeting place of science and myths about Ieodo.
In the mid-1990s, China complained about Korea building the marine research tower. Some Chinese people claimed that Ieodo was part of China. Chinese ambition toward vast territory is well known from Tibet to the East China Sea and the South China Sea. With regard to the sea, they it uses the continental shelf theory, which has often been decried in the real world.
It claims the 200 mile exclusive economic zone for its sea territory that directly confronts the Korean claim. In a similar dispute with China' exploitation of the Chun Xiao Gas Field in the East China Sea, Japan has proposed to draw a center line over sea territory overlapping with China to explore oil reserves under the seabed. This is a fair deal, but the two nations have not yet resolved their long dispute.
Ieodo is 100 km closer to Marado than the nearest island belonging to China. When the third party draws a center line on the overlapping EEZs between China and Korea, Ieodo is certainly part of Korean territory.
There are many territorial disputes in this world. At this moment, I am proposing a grand principle to resolve disputed sea territories: a rock or islet in the disputed sea territory should belong to the country whose humans settle and live on.
The Japanese Tokugawa government in the 16th century declared that Dokdo Island belonged to the Joseon Kingdom, because it was closer to Ulleungdo than to Oki Island of Japan. The Tokugawa regime asked the Japanese fishermen: Is that islet closer to Joseon or to Japan? The answer was: Joseon.
Then, the government declared that it belonged to Joseon. This is already a good precedent as an unwritten law for the modern law of the sea. Where overlapping claims to territorial seas out to 12-nautical miles exist, Article 15 of the Law of the Sea Convention applies.
This article provides for delimitation on the basis of the equidistance method, unless the interested parties both agree to the contrary or there exists an ``historic title or other special circumstances" in the area to be delimited.
The present Japanese government makes the false claim that the Dokdo islets belong to Japan, despite all kinds of historical evidence proving that they belong to Korea. Japan has forgotten the Tokugawa regime's declaration. Most unfortunate is Japan's colonial mentality in the 21st century.
China has its superpower mentality toward Korea, claiming that the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo was part of the Tang Dynasty, and considering North Korea as a colony of China. I don't think its superpower status can make Ieodo part of China.
The civilized world will not tolerate such a mentality. Anyway, there are no mineral resources or oil reserves under the seabed around Ieodo. So I do not see any serious potential of economic conflict in and around it.
Needless to say, Korea should be able defend Ieodo as a rock in the Korean sea geographically, culturally, poetically, and intellectually at any international forum when China claims that it is part of China. Better preparation is always better defense and protection. One good area to explore is: science and myths surrounding Ieodo.
Dr. Choi is poet and writer, and an associate of Five Oceans Consultants in the United States. He can be reached at yearnhchoi@gmail.com.
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