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By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
China's geographic agency reinserted its territorial claim over the southern reef islet of Ieodo, just one day after deleting the claim.
Beijing has made no official announcement on the change. Several South Korean media accounts, however, describe the move as a diplomatic slight to Seoul. Other reports say China's claim to the reef islet might become a thorny diplomatic issue as Chinese President Hu Jintao gets ready to make an official state visit to Seoul later this month.
The controversy involves China Oceanic Information Network and how it describes the islet on its online official database.
The agency had initially posted China's claim in December last year, but removed it from its online database Wednesday after Seoul's official request for a change. The original claim, however, was put back on Web site Thursday, just one day after it was taken down.
No official explanation was offered for the back-and-forth stance.
On the agency's online database (www.coi.gov.cn), Ieodo is referred to as Suyan Rock. The agency said the region surrounding the islet has been an active fishing area for years for Chinese from regions including Shandong, Jiansu, Zhejiang and Fujian.
It said Ieodo is Chinese territory because it is within China's territorial waters as well as its exclusive economic zone.
This is the first time a Chinese government agency has claimed Ieodo in a statement. Chinese officials in the past had demanded talks and negotiations over the islet.
South Korea said Ieodo is its territory under international standards. That's because the submerged islet is closer to Korea than any other country. Ieodo is 149 kilometers southwest of the Korean island of Marado but 247 kilometers northeast of the nearest Chinese island Tongdao, off the coast of Jiangsu Province.
In the past, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials said the islet is located within the overlapping area of the EEZs of both countries. They also protested what they called Seoul's unilateral activities in the region, including building a maritime observatory complex there.
Beijing even described the construction as unlawful but added no inter-governmental dispute was held over the issue.
The two countries have held more than 10 rounds of negotiations to settle EEZ demarcation, but have failed to resolve the issue.
South Korean media reports say Ieodo is within their country's EEZ and that geographically, the islet is on the South Korean continental shelf, which would make it part of the Korean Peninsula and Korean territory.
The Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute in 2001 built the ocean research station, replete with a helipad.
michaelha@koreatimes.co.kr
