Legal Problems Regarding Tokdo and Its Peripheral Waters in the 1999 Korea/Japan Fisheries Agreement

One of the crucial issues in the 1999 Fisheries Agreement between Korea and Japan is whether the Joint Fishing Zone or the Intermediate Zone in the East Sea (or the Sea of Japan) would exert certain effects upon the legal status of Tokdo therein and its peripheral waters including the 12 mile territorial sea. The Zone was established as a kind of provisional arrangement as a result of the difficulties in negotiating maritime boundaries due to the territorial controversy between Korea and Japan. The Fisheries Agreement did not attach any formal name to the Zone, apparently because the two neighbors were unable to agree on the legal status of the Zone. The Korean government labeled it as an Intermediate Zone, whereas the Japanese government has called it as Provisional Zone or Joint Management Zone. This is because Japanese government has preferred a practical approach as provided in Art. 74 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, wherein it is provided to the effect that any disputing States over the delimitation of maritime boundaries should make every effort to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature without prejudice to the final agreement; whereas the Korean government has rather opted for a neutral name. Since from the Korean point of view there is no dispute over the islet of Tokdo, which has been Korean territory since time immemorial except a brief period 1905-1945 under the Japanese occupation, it is natural that Korea would like to maintain the high seas status to the Zone as was provided in the 1965 Fisheries Treaty between Korea and Japan. The term "Provisional Zone", as it is called by the Japanese, might imply the existence of dispute over Tokdo. Many Japanese would rather call it a Joint Management Zone, because certain provisions regarding th