Present and Future Considerations

Abstract

This chapter discusses present and future considerations surrounding the management and possible resolution of this dispute. It evaluates the possibility of a settlement, and the options open to the two parties, contending that shared or joint-use zones in such areas as fisheries and seabed resources, for example, may serve to reduce frictions while benefitting all the parties concerned. The case is also argued for South Korea revising its contradictory natural prolongation and continental shelf-based claim vis-a-vis Japan elsewhere in the East China Sea. In addition, technological advances in resource extraction, for example, will represent opportunities and challenges for friendlier ties in the future. The chapter asserts that present and future difficulties do not necessarily mean the two neighbors are on an inevitable path to confrontation over this submerged rock.