• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.144-176
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• 2015

In September 2013, President Park Geun-hye announced her controversial "Look North" policy, of which the most salient aspect is the "Eurasia Initiative". This comprises various proposals designed to overcome existing constraints by developing new markets and creating new economic partners in continental areas from which South Korea has been alienated since the end of World War II, and this dovetails nicely with China's One Belt, One Road Initiative. The concepts of the "Silk Road Rail Express (SRX)" and the "East Sea Rim Maritime Community (ESRMC)" have also been discussed. SRX is at present a purely symbolic railroad project intended to encourage individual, cultural, trade and diplomatic exchanges. ESRMC is a model for establishing an ad hoc community to promote regional economic cooperation around the East Sea. President Park's Eurasia Initiative will provide South Korean investment for the Northeast to complement Russian plans, like the "Northern Energy Road" being built by Gazprom, and Chinese plans, like the Chang-Ji-Tu Development Plan for the North Korean port of Rajin. China's trade, as well as its energy and food supplies, pass through the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, and are thus vulnerable to interdiction by India or the US. China is therefore trying to reduce its exposure geopolitical risk by establishing a network of corridors between the Belt and the Road to provide alternative paths. The "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" and the "China-Myanmar Economic Corridor" provide such connections, and South Korea hopes that SRX and ESRMC can become part of a "China-South Korea Economic Corridor". This concept could do much to revitalize the underdeveloped northern provinces of China and Russia's Far East, not to mention North Korea. By linking up the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Trans-China Railway, the Trans-Mongolian Railway and the Trans-Korean Railway all these Asian countries will be connected to one another, and ultimately to Europe. An interim connection between China and South Korea using a rail-ferry has also been proposed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2004

Drift data from 17 Argo profiling floats in the East Sea are used to understand the mean flow and its variability in the upper portion of the East Sea Proper Water (UESPW) (around 800 m). The flow penetrates into the Ulleung basin (UB) through two paths: an extension of the southward flowing of the North Korean Cold Water along the east coast of Korea and between Ulleung Island and Dok island. Flows at 800 m are observed in the range of from 0.2 to 4.29 cms-1 and the variability in the north of the UB is larger than that in the south of the UB. In the UB, cyclonic flows from 0.3 to 1.6 cms-1 are observed with the bottom topography. We found that the mean kinetic energy (MKE) and the mean eddy kinetic energy (EKE) are 1.3 and 2.1 cm2s-2 respectively.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.120-135
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• 1996

The characteristics and fluctuations of structures and spatial distributions of thermal fronts and warm eddy in the Southeastern part of the East sea are discussed based on the data collected by the Naval Academy, Korea during Feb. 6-9, May 9-19 and Oct. 12-18, 1995. The thermal fronts existed very often at the sea off the Pohang-Ulsan, The generation of the thermal front is related with the development of the North Korea Cold Current. The warm eddy is located in the central part of the Ulleung basin where the local depth exceeds 1500m. This warm eddy is a major contributor to mass transport in the northern part of the East Sea. It is evident that knowledge of warm eddy is important in understanding the circulation in the western part of the East Sea.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.113-132
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• 2014

With the global warming phenomenon, the deep sea water area that fishing vessels can enter and operate is ever widening. For example, the Arctic Ocean recently has overall competitive advantages due to having many deep-sea fish stocks. The North Pacific region is a strategic coastal district, the closest access point of Arctic Ocean. For Korean fishing vessels which now operate in North Pacific region, and want to entry the Arctic Ocean, the analysis of technical efficiency is needed for preparing the better industry's future. This paper aims to analyze the relative efficiency, and select the low effective deep-sea fishing vessels in the North Pacific, and to suggest their desirables strategies. As a research methodology, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Index are applied to 16 fishing vessels for the periods(2009 to 2013). To draw out the efficiency of targeted deep-sea fishing vessels, gross tons, horsepowers, and operating days are used as input variables while total catch stands for an output variable. As a result, CCR efficiency, BCC efficiency and scalability efficiency are measured to be 0.8405, 0.9484 and 0.8858 respectively for 5 years (2009 to 2013). In conclusion, 38% of total tons, 36% of horsepowers and 29% of operating days each fishing vessel should be reduced to keep their competitive powers.

• Strategy21
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• s.31
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• pp.220-250
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• 2013

South Korean national security strategy should be developed to effectively handle and counter increasing maritime threats and challenges. There are three major maritime threats South Korea faces today; maritime disputes on the EEZ boundary and Dokdo islet issues, North Korean threats, and international maritime security. Maritime disputes in the region are getting intensified and turned into a military confrontation after 2010. Now regional countries confront each other with military and police forces and use economic leverage to coerce the others. They are very eager to create advantageous de facto situations to legitimize their territorial claims. North Korean threat is also increasing in the sea as we witnessed in the Cheonan incident and Yeonpyoung shelling in 2010. North Korea resorts to local provocations and nuclear threats to coerce South Korea in which it may enjoy asymmetric advantages. The NLL area of the west sea would be a main hot spot that North Korea may continue to make a local provocation. Also, South Korean national economy is heavily dependent upon foreign trade and national strategic resources such as oil are all imported. Without an assurance on the safety of sea routes, these economic activities cannot be maintained and expanded. This paper argues that South Korea should make national maritime strategy and enhance the strength of naval forces. As a middle power, its national security strategy needs to consider all the threats and challenges not only from North Korea but also to maritime security. This is not a matter of choice but a mandate for national survival and prosperity. This paper discusses the importance of maritime security, changing characteristics of maritime threats and challenges, regional maritime disputes and its threat to South Korea's security, and South Korea's future security strategy and ways to enhance the role of naval forces. Our national maritime strategy needs to show middle and long term policy directions on how we will protect our maritime interests. Especially, it is important to build proper naval might to carry out all the roles and missions required to the military.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.717-731
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• 2011

To clarify relationships between the abundance and biological characteristics of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp., we analyzed spatiotemporal changes in fork length, body weight, and an index of relative abundance (catch per unit effort, CPUE) for pink salmon (O. gorbuscha), chum salmon (O. keta), and sockeye salmon (O. nerka) collected by research gill-nets from the T/V Oshoro-maru and the T/V Hokusei-maru of Hokkaido University in the North Pacific during 1953-2007. Populations of each species were distributed throughout the western Bering Sea, eastern Bering Sea (EB), western North Pacific (WNP), central North Pacific (CNP), eastern North Pacific (ENP), and Okhotsk Sea. Since 1970, the average body size of chum salmon at ocean ages 0.3-0.4 has generally declined in the WNP and CNP. However, the average body sizes of sockeye and pink salmon have not shown temporal changes. Chum salmon showed significant negative (positive) correlations between CPUE and body size for populations in CNP (ENP) at ocean ages 0.2-0.3 (age 0.1) for both sexes. In general, sockeye salmon also showed significant negative (positive) correlations between CPUE and body size for populations in the EB at ocean ages X.2-X.3 (age X.1) for both sexes, except in CNP at age 2. Our results suggest that better growth by chum and sockeye salmon in the early periods of their ocean life histories might produce higher abundance. This higher abundance, which might also be affected by overlapping distributions among Pacific salmon species and populations in certain seas, in turn appears to cause density-dependent declines in growth in the following ocean life history period due to the limited carrying capacity of the seas. To understand complex dynamics in Pacific salmon species in the North Pacific Ocean, research on interactions among species and populations is needed.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-66
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the institutional factors and the political environment in which the influence of the president is limited in South Korea's decision making process of the policy toward North Korea. Although the president has the highest decision-making power over policy toward North Korea as a head of state, the president's influence is not always absolute. Many reasons, such as bureaucratic government through the separation of power, the political environment such as divided government or the remaining term of the president,and the specificity of policy act as factors limiting the president's influence on policy toward North Korea. This study analyzed the dynamics of the decision making process of the 'Special Zone for Peace and Cooperation in the West Sea' which was planned by the agreement between the two Koreas in 2007, and examined the influence of the president, limited by the institutional environment and political conditions in the process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.255-269
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• 2023

Surface water temperature of a bay (from the south to the north) increases in spring and summer, but decreases in autumn and winter. Due to shallow water depth, freshwater outflow, and weak current, the water temperature in the central to northern part of the bay is greatly affected by the land coast and air temperature, with large fluctuations. Water temperature variations are large in the north-east coast of the bay, but small in the south-west coast. The difference between water temperature and air temperature is greater in winter and in the south-central part of the bay than that in the north to the eastern coast of the bay where sea dykes are located. As the bay goes from south to north, the range of water temperature fluctuation and the phase show increases. When fresh water is released from the sea dike, the surrounding water temperature decreases and then rises, or rises and then falls. The first mode of empirical orthogonal function (EOF) represents seasonal variation of water temperature. The second mode represents the variability of water temperature gradient in east-west and north-south directions of the bay. In the first mode, the maximum and the minimum are shown in autumn and summer, respectively, consistent with seasonal distribution of surface water temperature variance. In the second mode, phases of the coast of Seosan~Boryeong and the east coast of Anmyeon Island are opposite to each other, bordering the center of the deep bay. Periodic fluctuation of the first mode time coefficient dominates in the one-day and half-day cycle. Its daily fluctuation pattern is similar to air temperature variation. Sea conditions and topographical characteristics excluding air temperature are factors contributing to the variation of the second mode time coefficient.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.89-105
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• 2009

South Korea imports more than one hundred tons of fishery products every year from China, Japan, North Korea, etc. However, imported North Korean fishery products was only 4% of the total fishery products imported in 2007. Though South-North Trade as inter-Korean trade is exempted from tax, imports of North Korean fishery products have not been activated owing to import restrictions, insufficient quality control etc. Expanding imports of North Korean fishery products seems, however, to contribute to lessen the supply and demand unbalance in fishery products of South Korea. It will especially gratify a part of fresh and cold fishery products demand. Therefore, we need to expand the imports of North Korean fishery products by quality control improvement, reformation of origin certifying system, import liberalization etc. This study researches the demand and supply of fishery products of South and North Korea, the actual conditions of imports of North Korean fishery products, and suggests strategies to expand their imports. As the greatest reason to oppose imports of North Korean fishery products is the pricing pressure of domestically produced fishery products due to imports of North Korean fishery products, we need to research and analyze the distribution channels, retail markets, sales prices of imported North Korean fishery products to verify that imports of North Korean fishery products has not caused lower pricing of domestically produced fishery products.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.145-151
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• 2016

Temperature variability at the upper layer related to climate regime shifts in the Korean waters was illustrated using water temperature, climate index. Three major climate regime shifts (CRS) in 1976, 1988 and 1998 in north Pacific region had an significant influence on the major marine ecosystems structure pattern. Three marginal seas around Korean peninsula; East Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea also got important impact from this kind of decadal shift. We used 10m sea water temperatures in four regions of Korean waters since 1950 to detect major fluctuation patterns both seasonally and also decadal shift. 1988 CRS was occurred in all of the study areas in most seasons however, 1998 CRS was only detected in the Yellow Sea and in the southern part of the East Sea. 1976 CRS was detected in all of the study area mainly in winter. After 1998 CRS, the water temperature in the southern part of the East Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea were going into decreased pattern; however, in the northern part of the East Sea, it was further shifted to increasing pattern which was started from 1988 CRS period.