South Korea and China will hold preparatory consultation this week for the start of talks on demarcating their maritime border to resolve issues stemming from overlapping economic exclusive zones (EEZs), officials said Wednesday.
Officials from the two countries' foreign ministries will get together in Shanghai on Thursday in the runup to the negotiations on drawing the maritime border as a follow-up to a summit between their political leaders, they added.
Seoul and Beijing have been in talks over the demarcation of their EEZs since 1996, but little headway has been made due to sharp differences.
South Korea has insisted that a median line that is equal distance from its and China's shorelines should become the demarcation line.
But China has said that the population that resides on each country's shoreline and their total length should be taken into account in drawing the EEZ zones. China's claim could push the demarcation line close to South Korean shores, a condition not accepted by Seoul.
As little progress has been made, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed last July to expedite negotiations on the issue this year.
Adding to the EEZ issue, Seoul and Beijing remain at odds over China's 2013 declaration of its new air defense identification zone over the East China Sea that encroaches upon South Korea's and includes the Seoul-controlled submerged rock of Ieodo.
Ieodo, which is 4.6 meters below sea level, lies within the overlapping EEZs of South Korea and China. Although international maritime law stipulates that a submerged rock cannot be claimed as territory by any country, South Korea effectively controls Ieodo, which is closer to it than any other country.
Ieodo is located 149 kilometers southwest of Korea's southernmost island of Marado and 247 kilometers northeast of the nearest Chinese island Tongdao.
South Korea has reinforced its jurisdiction over the islet, and as part of such efforts, it built an unmanned maritime research station on it in 2003 to monitor weather conditions and survey maritime features in the area. (Yonhap)
