South Korea blocks foreign ownership of outer-most islands

The government said Friday that it has made any future sale of eight outer-most islands subject to prior approval, a move apparently aimed at preventing foreign ownership of the islands that make up the country's maritime border.

   Under the revised regulation, owners of the eight currently uninhabited islands must obtain prior authorization for the sale of their properties to foreign investors, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

   There are 23 islands that provide datum points for the country's maritime border and 13 of them are currently uninhabited, the ministry said. Five other uninhabited islands had already been subject to prior approval for sale to foreign investors.

   The move comes after the local owner of Seogyeokryeol Island, the western-most island in South Chungcheong Province, refused to sell the island to the government at a government proposed price of

200 million won ($181,000), claiming a Chinese investor had offered to buy the uninhabited island for 2 billion won in 2012.

   "The need to block foreign ownership of the uninhabited island of Seogyeokryeol has been brought up continuously as a way of strengthening the country's control over its territorial waters," the ministry said in a press release.

   The revised regulation will immediately go into effect as of Friday with any unauthorized sale of any of the 13 uninhabited islands along the country's maritime border subject to a maximum jail term of two years, it added.

   Seogyeokryeol Island is the largest in size, at about 129,000 square meters, among the eight uninhabited islands that were freshly made subject to prior authorization for sale.

   Others include Homigot, a small islet in waters off Pohang, South Gyeongsang Province, and Saeng-do, the southern-most island in waters off Busan. (Yonhap)