Future of Korea-Japan joint development zone in doubt

Diplomacy

Published: 14 Feb. 2024, 19:00

Future of Korea-Japan joint development zone in doubt

Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa speaks during a press conference during the 5th Ministerial Interim Meeting at the Forum Secretariat in Suva on Monday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Neither Japan nor Korea will have the right to develop an oil-rich region of the East China Sea without joint consent even after the expiration of an agreement to develop the area together, said the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.

“The Joint Development Zone [JDZ] agreement is stipulated to be terminated, by one party's notice of termination, 50 years after it went into effect,” said the ministry on Wednesday.

“However, even if the agreement is terminated, under current international law, one party cannot monopolize resource development rights or engage in unilateral development without consent from the other party in waters of conflicting continental shelf claims.”

The ministry’s statement followed media reports on Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa’s recent comments about the agreement.

“Setting the boundary based on the median line would be a fair solution,” Kamikawa told the Diet last Friday in response to a question about the impending end of the 50-year agreement, according to multiple Korean news reports.

If the region, some 125 miles south of Jeju Island, is divided by the median line, much of its oil-rich section would reportedly go to Japan.

Following territorial disputes over the area, Korea and Japan agreed in 1978 to designate it as a joint development zone for the next five decades.

However, little development has actually occurred as exploration of the area requires the agreement of both Korea and Japan.

With Japan's agreement, Korea only inspected a small portion of the zone — less than 1 percent of the total area — in 2002. After the inspection, Seoul assessed that there could be around 36 million tons of oil in that small section alone.

“In relation to the JDZ Agreement, our government has continued to make multifaceted diplomatic efforts, including continuous communication with the Japanese side at various levels, and has been conducting a multifaceted review in preparation for various situations related to the agreement through close cooperation between relevant ministries,” said the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Wednesday.

The last time the Korean Foreign Ministry contacted Japan to discuss joint development was in January 2020, when Korea designated the Korea National Oil Corporation as its main developer of the zone and asked Japan to designate its counterpart.

The Joint Development Zone between Korea and Japan in the East China Sea, marked white. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Tokyo reportedly asked for a deferral, citing Covid-19 pandemic issues.

Last year, the National Assembly in Korea passed a resolution urging Japan to respond more actively to Korea’s requests to develop the area jointly.

The JDZ agreement is set to end on June 22, 2028.

Either party can communicate their intention to terminate or extend the agreement from June 22, 2025.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]