Two Koreas fail to agree on joint fishing area. The future for the establishment of a peace area in West Sea is ambiguous. <\/p>\n
The second inter-Korean Defense Ministerial Talks closed on the 29 of November in Pyongyang, adopting an agreement which consists of seven articles. However, the ministers of both Koreas failed to agree on the designation of a joint fishing area, which will put a strain on developing a special peace and cooperation zone in the West Sea, one of the key agreements adopted at the 2007 second inter-Korean summit. <\/p>\n
Designed to end conflicts in the West Sea between the two Koreas, the agreement to establish a special peace and cooperation zone in the West Sea includes the creation of a joint fishing area, establishment of a special economic zone in Haeju, hoint access to Haeju harbor, the passage of civilian vessels via direct routes in Haeju and the joint use of the Han River estuary. Immediately following the summit, President Roh attached a special meaning to this agreement, referring to it as the \u201cmost essential and talked about agreement yet.\u201d <\/p>\n
The creation of a joint fishing area was considered the first step to be taken in establishing a peace zone in the West Sea. However, both Koreas stand on different footing on this issue. During the ministerial talks, the South proposed having a joint fishing area of equal expanse on either side of the western sea border, the Northern Limit Line(NLL) Line, whereas the North proposed creating both a peace zone and fishing area far south of the line.<\/p>\n
Both Koreas did not yield an inch on the matter. It was reported that the South Korean government conveyed a message on Thursday to its Defense Minister, stating, \u201cIt is okay to come back empty-handed.\u201d It seems that the government has not made any concession on the NLL because it fears that the concession would backfire at home and have a negative impact on the upcoming presidential election. <\/p>\n
At the Defense Ministerial Talks, both ministers merely confirmed the importance of establishing a joint fishing area and a special peace and cooperation zone and agreed to discuss the matter further at the inter-Korean General Meetings. The prospects for the establishment of a peace area are discouraging. <\/p>\n
At the inter-Korean Prime Ministerial Talks held in early November, both Koreas agreed to launch a project to build a joint fishing area in the first half of 2008. Certainly, there is still enough time to work out the details of the project. However, the NLL is a very delicate issue. That is why the Defense Ministers have failed to resolve the NLL dispute, even though they met with the full support from their leaders and spent three days and two nights discussing the matter. Therefore, it would be short-sighted to predict a swift breakthrough in the NLL dispute. <\/p>\n
Some critics even argue that the current effort to build a peace area in the West Sea might go down the drain as President Roh\u2019s administration\u2019s term comes to an end three months later. After all, it is up to the will of the next South Korean government whether to redraw the NLL or keep it in place. <\/p>\n
In addition, both ministers agreed to set up a joint military committee. The establishment of the military committee was first mentioned in 1992 but nothing has been done in the past 15 years. The South Korean delegation highly praised the establishment saying that it has revived the peacemaking principles of the 1992 Inter-Koran Basic Agreement. <\/p>\n
Both Koreas decided to create and operate a joint military committee as a means to end the War and reaffirm the principle of non-aggression and use the committee to find ways of preventing armed conflicts in the West Sea. <\/p>\n
To be headed by the deputy secretaries of both countries, the committee will comprise of directors of the National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Foreign Ministry, and Unification Ministry of both countries. It is known that the committee will finalize the maritime nonaggression demarcation line replacing the NLL, and discuss how to reduce military spending. <\/p>\n
Early next year, the first joint military committee meeting will be held to discuss procedures pertinent to committee meetings and subcommittees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two Koreas fail to agree on joint fishing area. The future for the establishment of a peace area in West Sea is ambiguous. The second inter-Korean Defense Ministerial Talks closed on the 29 of November in Pyongyang, adopting an agreement which consists of seven articles. However, the ministers of both Koreas failed to agree on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":5641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-analysis-and-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n