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Seoul, Beijing to resume EEZ talks Tuesday
By Jun Ji-hye
Korea and China will hold talks in Seoul Tuesday on the demarcation of their maritime boundaries, aimed at resolving the issue of their overlapping exclusive economic zones (EEZ) in the West Sea, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Monday.
The talks, led by Second Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, come after President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed in July 2014 to reopen negotiations to solve bilateral disputes over the overlapping EEZs.
From 1996 to 2008, Seoul and Beijing held 14 rounds of director-level negotiations over the demarcation, but to no avail due to a wide difference of opinion between the two sides.
The negotiations were upgraded from the director level to the vice ministerial level this time in an effort to resolve the longstanding dispute, the ministry said.
The EEZ is a sea zone which stretches out 200 nautical miles from the coastline, over which a country has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources.
Korea claims that a median line based on equal distance from each other’s coastline should become the demarcation line to determine the EEZ, while China argues that the total length of the coastlines and the population along them must be taken into account in the demarcation.
Observers say that the dispute over Ieodo, a submerged rock in the overlapping EEZs, on which Korea operates scientific research facilities, would be a hot issue during the negotiations.
The submerged reef controlled by Seoul lies 149 kilometers southwest of Korea’s southernmost island of Marado, and 247 kilometers northeast of the nearest Chinese island Tongdao.
“The talks this time are meaningful in that the official negotiation process regarding the maritime demarcation is being reopened,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity, indicating that the talks will take a long time due to the differing positions of the two sides.
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