The Japan-Korea Joint Development Agreement: with Particular References to Revising the Deadlock Resolution Mechanism

Abstract

1. On 30 January 1974, in order to break the deadlock that had developed in the boundary negotiations for the southern part of the continental shelf since the release of a United Nations-sponsored report in 1969, which observed that “a high probability exists that the continental shelf between Taiwan [Region] and Japan may be one of the most prolific oil reservoirs in the world”,1 Japan and South Korea (Korea) signed the Japan-Korea Joint Development Agreement.2 The entry into force of this Agreement on 22 June 1978 apparently marked the end of this longstanding deadlock. 2. However, in 2020, an outstanding study titled Korea-Japan JDZ to End in Deadlock would reveal that the absence of oil production in the Japan-Korea Joint Development Zone (Japan-Korea JDZ or JDZ) is probably due to a deadlock in joint cooperation rather than a failure in discovering any exploitable resources. This deadlock, according to Choi’s analysis,3 may be summed up as follows: Japan has claimed for years and may now have concluded that there has been no commercial discovery of natural resources in the Japan-Korea JDZ, and as a result, did not authorize any concessionaires during the 2009-2017 exploration period, whereas Korea believes that economically exploitable resources are very likely to be found in the JDZ and desires to resume joint exploration operations.4 In light of this, it seems to be exceedingly difficult to predict what will happen to this Agreement once its initial fifty-year validity period ends in 2028.