Seoul: South Korea and Japan will hold working-level talks in Tokyo later this week to discuss the joint development of an underwater continental shelf believed to hold mass deposits of oil and other natural resources, officials said Thursday.
The talks, scheduled for Friday, mark the resumption of long-suspended negotiations on the joint exploitation of the ‘Block 7’ continental shelf in the East China Sea, under a 1978 bilateral agreement, nearly four decades after the last meeting in 1985.
The sixth round of negotiations on the Agreement on the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) will be led by Hwang Jun-shik, director general for international legal affairs of the South Korean foreign ministry, and Akihiro Okochi, deputy director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s foreign ministry.
Officials from the two countries’ industry ministries will also join the talks, Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea and Japan signed the JDZ agreement in 1974 to pursue the joint exploration and development of the block and adjacent waters south of Jeju Island, covering an area of 82,557 square kilometers, based on geological analyses suggesting the continental shelf may hold significant reserves of oil, gas and other minerals. The agreement came into effect four years later.
The two countries held five rounds of talks, but Japan became lukewarm about moving forward with the agreement after a new international treaty on maritime activities, which came into force in 1994, adopted criteria for determining continental shelf boundaries in Japan’s favor.
The precedents since then suggest Japan could claim all of the joint development area as part of its exclusive economic zone.
The issue drew fresh attention earlier this year after Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa hinted during a parliamentary session in February at the possibility of Tokyo initiating a renegotiation with Seoul when the agreement expires.
The JDZ agreement is valid until June 2028, but either side can notify the other of an intent to terminate it three years before the expiration date.
Friday’s talks will focus on exchanging positions on the issue and discussing efforts to implement the agreement at the working level, a foreign ministry official in Seoul said, adding that the termination or extension of the agreement will not be on the agenda.
“We believe that the two countries will continue to be able to address the issue amicably, and we have been preparing for every possible scenario to best serve our national interests,” the official said.
–IANS