Dispute looms over continental shelf claims by Korea, China

I think we really have to pay attention to all these Asian territorial disputes.  Here is another one to add to the list.

V/R

Dave

Dispute looms over continental shelf claims by Korea, China

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20121223000199

Published : 2012-12-23 18:55
Updated : 2012-12-23 18:56

China has claimed a greater portion of its continental shelf in the East China Sea in a document it recently submitted to the United Nations, in an apparent bid to raise its stake in territorial rows with its neighbors. 

The U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf’s website showed on Sunday Beijing’s claim to the edge of its seabed beyond its 200 nautical mile (370 kilometer) exclusive economic zone from the baselines of its territorial waters. 

The report, filed on Dec. 14, said “geomorphologic and geological features” prove that China’s ocean floor “naturally” stretches to the Okinawa Trough, some 200 kilometers from its coast. It also shows that in comparison with its preliminary filing, the country had slightly expanded its claim northeastward, widening the overlap with Korea’s claim. 

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry is expected to turn in its own formal statement as early as Wednesday. It reportedly plans to maintain the country’s outer limit of continental shelf is closer to Japan than it said in its 2009 claim, based on research by the state-run Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. 

The contested areas are believed to hold vast crude and natural gas reserves.

(Continued at the link below)

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20121223000199