hankyoreh

A view of a Han River estuary that South and North Korea agreed to conduct a joint hydrographic survey of on Nov. 5. (Park Kyung-man

The Ministry of National Defense plans to expand the current no-fly zone based on the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) to include the Northern Limit Line (NLL) areas in the East and West (Yellow) Seas and the Han and Imjin River estuaries.

In accordance with their Sept. 19 military agreement, both South and North Korea have instituted no-fly zones in the vicinity of the MDL since Nov. 1, but the zones have not been established for the East and West Sea or Han and Imjin River estuaries.

“Following an agreement on establishing a maritime peace zone around the NLL in the West Sea, we will discuss the issue of establishing no-fly zones in the East and West Sea NLL and Han River estuary regions,” a Ministry of National Defense (MND) senior official said on Nov. 15. This means that once a boundary for establishing the West Sea maritime peace zone has been decided, discussions on the issue of additional no-fly zone designations in the East and West Seas and Han and Imjin River estuaries will proceed on that basis.

Establishing no-fly zones in the East and West Sea NLL and Han River estuary areas would require a mutually agreed-upon boundary between South and North, as with the MDL. As a horizontal continuation of the MDL along the 38th parallel, the East Sea NLL could fit the bill. As neutral waters, the Han and Imjin River estuaries do not include an MDL, but one possible approach would involve using the river’s exact center as a boundary.

A bigger problem is the designation of a no-fly zone in the West Sea NLL region. Reaching an agreement would not be difficult if the North recognizes the NLL as a boundary during discussions on establishing a West Sea maritime peace zone. But trouble could arise if it insists on using its own West Sea security demarcation line – which falls south of the NLL – as the boundary for the maritime peace zone’s establishment.

Discussions on forming a West Sea maritime peace zone are scheduled to proceed under the Inter-Korean Joint Military Committee. At general-level military talks on Oct. 26, South and North Korea agreed to quickly establish the committee based on their May 1992 agreement on the formation and operation of a Joint Military Committee, but no delegations have yet been put together. A Ministry of National Defense official said the South will “continue discussions with the North so that the Inter-Korean Joint Military Committee can be launched within the year.”

By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer

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