For many years, there was no agreement between South Korea and China on the fishing zones in their economic zones. While South Korea declared a peace line against Japanese fishing vessels illegally fishing in its territory, China claimed exclusive fishing rights by declaring the "Mao Zedong Line" in 1950. The 'Mao Zedong Line' was set at 50-60 nautical miles from the 12 nautical mile territorial sea and prohibited Korean vessels from fishing within the line. The Mao Zedong Line, which was a domestic legal measure, was attempted to be incorporated into the international legal order with the promulgation of the EEZ in 1996. However, China's territorial maritime boundary was an excessively straight line, extending its territorial waters to a line close to the 'Mao Zedong Line'. This line is used not only to determine the 12 nautical mile territorial limit, but also to determine the boundary of the exclusive economic zone, which is a problem for China and its neighbours within 400 nautical miles. This is where the problem with South Korea comes in.
Until the two countries established diplomatic relations in Augu st 1992, there was no agreement on maritime boundaries. Probl ems included the depletion of fish stocks, marine pollution and various maritime accidents caused by Chinese vessels fishing near Korean territorial waters. With the establishment of Sino-Korean diplomatic relations, the two countries recognised the need for consultations to resolve the fisheries issue and began fisheries negotiations in December 1993. However, China preferred the current fisheries regime based on the principle of freedom of the high seas to the early introduction of the exclusive economic zone system. In other words, it insisted on maintaining the current free fishing regime in both 12-mile territorial waters until the exclusive economic zone between the two countries was established, which caused difficulties in the negotiations from the outset.
While China continued to insist on a free fishing zone and sought to expand the EEZ, South Korea sought to minimise the EEZ and expand the area within which the coastal state could exercise its exclusive rights. Despite many difficulties, including sharp differences between the two countries and China's passivity, the two countries concluded negotiations in November 1998 and the Korea-China Fisheries Agreement finally entered into force in June 2001. The agreement covers the exclusive economic zones of both countries. It covers South Korea's EEZ in the East Sea, including the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, which overlap between the two countries, and China's EEZ in the South China Sea. The Korea-China Fisheries Agreement, like the Korea-Jap an Fisheries Agreement, establishes a joint fishing zone and divides the joint fishing zone into "provisional measures" and "transitional zones".
