South Korea called in China's ambassador on Monday and lodged a formal protest against reported remarks by a senior Beijing official that laid jurisdictional claim to a submerged South Korean outcropping of rock in the waters south of Jeju Island, Seoul officials said Monday.
The issue surrounding Ieodo recently surfaced after local media reported Liu Xigui, chief of China's State Oceanic Administration, claimed in an interview with China's Xinhua news that the outcropping lies under Beijing's jurisdictional boundary.
President Lee Myung-bak said Monday it is a matter of course that the rock outcropping of Ieodo off South Korea's southern island of Jeju will remain under Seoul's control in the future, after a top Chinese maritime official reportedly laid claim to it earlier this month.
Ieodo, submerged 4.6 meters, lies within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of South Korea and China. Although an international maritime law stipulates that a submerged rock cannot be claimed as territory by any country, South Korea effectively controls Ieodo, which is closer to it than any other country.
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