By Shannon Tiezzi
China and South Korea will hold their first round of maritime demarcation talks in December.
It hasn’t been a good two weeks for China’s maritime claims. First, a U.S. freedom of navigation operation took the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-controlled feature in the South China Sea, then the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that it does have jurisdiction to hear the Philippines’ case against China’s South China Sea claims (despite objections from Beijing). But this week, there was some good news for China in the maritime domain: China and South Korea are inching toward finalizing the maritime demarcation between their two countries.
China and South Korea’s exclusive economic zones (EEZs) overlap in the Yellow Sea, and as of yet the two sides haven’t reached an agreement on the demarcation line. This has led to heightened tensions over fishing rights in particular, with clashes between theSouth Korean Coast Guard and Chinese fishermen accused of illegally fishing in South Korea’s waters. In 2014, a Chinese fisherman was fatally shot in a scuffle with the South Korean Coast Guard; in 2011, a Chinese fisherman fatally stabbed a South Korean Coast Guard officer. Finalizing the demarcation line would help prevent further ugly encounters between the two sides.
There’s no real territorial dispute at stake for China or South Korea, although they spar over a submerged rock (known as Ieodo in Korea and Suyan in China). Both sides agree the rock has no territorial status – and thus is not the subject of a territorial dispute – but both China and South Korea claim the rock is included in their respective EEZs. South Korea has built an ocean research station on Ieodo, while China made sure its 2013 air defense identification zone in the East China Sea extended over it. In response, South Korea expanded its own ADIZ to cover the rock.
The maritime demarcation issue has been regularly brought up at bilateral meetings, but this is the first time China and South Korea will conduct formal negotiations aimed at defining the demarcation line. When Chinese President Xi Jinping was in South Korea in July 2014, he and Korean President Park Geun-hye agreed that the two sides would start official discussions on the maritime demarcation line in 2015. The talks next month will come just in time to fulfill that promise.
Read the full story at The Diplomat