hankyoreh

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter

The South Korean government said it plans to look at including the airspace over Ieo Island in the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ).

The island has been the subject of controversy lately after China announced on Nov. 23 that it was including Ieo Island in its own air defense zone. The airspace for the island, which is under the effective control of South Korea, is currently included in Japan’s air defense zone.

Speaking before a general meeting of the National Assembly National Defense Committee on Nov. 26, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said the ministry plans to “discuss extending KADIZ [to Ieo Island] with the relevant agencies.”

He also responded to Saenuri Party (NFP) lawmaker Chung Hee-soo’s demand to include Ieo Island as part of KADIZ by saying that it was “already under [South Korea’s] effective control” and that there was “no great significance” in Japan claiming the airspace as part of its own air defense zone.

South Korean and Japan have already held more than ten discussions on Ieo Island’s inclusion in KADIZ without any conclusion being reached.

Kim Jang-soo, head of the Blue House’s national security office, also commented on China’s declaration while attending a meeting of the National Assembly Steering Committee. When questioned on it by Democratic Party lawmaker Baek Kun-ki, Kim replied that the declaration “does not impact our management, use, or exploration of Ieo Island because it is located within our zone of operations.”

“We administer Ieo Island, and it has one of our naval science bases on it,” Kim added.

He went on to say that “the notions of territory or territorial sea do not apply. It’s a reef. Our basic approach to the drawing of naval boundaries is to work the matter out between us and China.”

Ieo Island has traditionally been viewed as an area under South Korean jurisdiction. Ieodo Ocean Research Station was built there in 2003, and patrol flights have taken place twice weekly.

But the airspace was not included in KADIZ as set by the US military in 1951. In 1969, Japan declared it as part of its own air defense zone. Last week on Nov. 23, China did the same.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that the air defense zone set and announced by Japan in 1969 included not just Ieo Island but also Mara Island, which is also South Korean territory.

“In 1969 when Japan’s air defense zone was set, the standard for [determining] territorial sea was three nautical miles,” said Ministry of National Defense spokesman Kim Min-seok in a morning briefing. “In 1982, it was expanded from three to 12 nautical miles, and [part of] Japan’s air defense zone came part of our territorial waters.”

One nautical mile is approximately 1.8 kilometers.

Kim‘s explanation suggested that the air defense zone was set more than three nautical miles outside of South Korean territorial sea, and that the Japanese zone only intruded on South Korean airspace when the standard was changed to 12 nautical miles.

He also said that Japan was “not notified about South Korean aircraft activity [around Mara Island] because they are our territorial sea and our territorial airspace.”

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