Korea, China conclude fisheries pact

After seven and a half years of negotiations, Korea and China have concluded a bilateral fisheries agreement that will go into effect on Jun. 30.

Hong Seung-Yong, vice minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, and his Chinese counterpart agreed Thursday to implement the bilateral fisheries agreement. With this agreement, the Korea-China fisheries talks, which started in December 1993, came to an end, thus completing a three-way fisheries agreement among Korea, China and Japan.

The two countries decided on the effective date considering China`s fishing closure from Jun. 16 and Korea`s demand to implement it within the first half of this year. The biggest issue in the bilateral negotiations was fishing zones in the East China Sea. The countries agreed to expand the zone further south to 29.40 degrees north latitude. In this connection, Korean fishing boats could catch fish between 26 and 27 degrees north latitude, which is further south from the middle of the Korean-Japanese fishing zone. In the zone, Korea will be allowed to engage in fishing with 40 trawlers, 30 fish-trap boats and 120 general fishing boats.

Also, the two countries agreed to fishing quotas of 60,000 tons by 1,402 boats for Korea and 109,600 tons by 2,796 ships for China. However, they agreed to adjust the quota on an equal basis.

In addition, both sides agreed to reduce the fishing period for trawlers within Korea`s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) while limiting the number of China`s fishing boats within the fishing zone where large trawlers are limited to 178 ships. Fishing by China`s trawlers within Korea`s EEZ will also be slashed to 980 ships or 62 percent of the permitted number of ships.

Kim Dong-Won daviskim@donga.com