배타적 경제수역 내 미․중 군사활동과 우리나라에의 함의

Exclusive economic zone is a new jurisdiction area with special characteristics, together with territorial sea and high seas under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS) since the adoption of the Convention, 1982. There are some problems that could not be resolved due to disagreements between coastal and maritime states in the process of third conference of the united nations convention on the law of the sea, one of which is related to military activities. Coastal states regard military activities in their EEZ as security threats, whereas maritime states seek to enjoy the freedom of navigation in coastal state's EEZ. This issue has been continuously controversial since the adoption of the UNCLOS in 1982, and nowadays sharply divided disputes are ongoing between USA and PRC in South China Sea. USA asserts freedom of navigation with the position of maritime states, on the other hand PRC condemns those behaviors with the position of coastal states, and threatens the USA’s warships and military aircrafts. However those two states’ are not rational in the light of the recent international legal system. Problems related to military activities in the coastal states' EEZ can have considerable effect on the Republic of Korea as well as USA and PRC. With no boundary delimitation of EEZ in the Yellow Sea, PRC keeps sending warships to ROK's waters beyond the virtual median line of the Yellow Sea. Besides, China's military aircraft fly without notice over South Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone(KADIZ) which could make ROK regard it as a severe security threat. Therefore, to the extent compatible with the UNCLOS, ROK should set the scope of military activities that could threaten the integrity and political independence of coastal countries and hinder rights and obligations of coastal countries in the EEZ. And also ROK should establish a domestic legal basis for regulating or monitoring those military activities