Nonexistent Line on the Korean West Sea

Recently tensions are mounting in the West Sea of Korea. What sparks off such tensions is Northern Limit Line (NLL).
“NLL” Is a Phantom Line The “NLL” came into being in 1953. The United States had to sign the Armistice Agreement after the defeat in the Korean war  (1950-1953) and drew a line including five islands on the West Sea of Korea under their control in order to prevent the south Korean government from attempting to march the north single-handed and consequent recurrence of war. This limit line which was unilaterally drawn by Mark W. Clark, the then commander of the United Nations Command, was also the “final interception line” to keep the south Korean people from crossing over to the north. It is
axiomatic that such unilaterally-drawn “NLL” cannot take on a legal character.
The “NLL” ignores the Korean Armistice Agreement and the rudimentary requirements of the international law.
The Armistice Agreement stipulates that only five islands, Paengnyong, Taechong, Sochong, Yonphyong, and U in the north-controlled territorial waters of the West Sea, shall be under the military control of the UNC, and other islands and the surrounding waters under the jurisdictionof the Korean People’s Army. The United States itself also explained that the phrase related with the jurisdiction over the islands meant to control only five islands. In fact the US war vessels sailed the open sea to get access to the abovementioned five islands after the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement.
Under the international law the warring parties, in the unusual state of armistice, should reach an agreement on the surrounding waters of an island in the territorial waters of the opposite on the basis of the armistice agreement already concluded.
That is why the United States did not notify the DPRK of the existence of the “NLL,” to say nothing of its being made public, even after a lapse of many years.
The Americans themselves acknowledged the illegality of the “NLL.” In December 1973, Philip Charles Habib, the then US ambassador to south Korea,
apprehended that in case an incident would occur in the disputed area, “NLL,” it could mar the images of south Korea and the United States before a majority of countries. Henry Kissinger, the then US Secretary of State, noted through a diplomatic message in 1975 that the “NLL” had been unilaterally fixed and was being rejected by north Korea and that was undoubtedly against the
international law. The US government distributed to the participants to a UN conference on the law of the sea held in 1980 in its country the map of Korea on which the virtual border linebetween the north and the south of Korea on its West Sea was marked farther south of the “NLL” on the basis of the principle of equidistance stipulated on the Law of the Sea. In 1999 a spokesman for the US State Department claimed that the “NLL” was not recognized officially.
Reasons for Clinging to “NLL”
The south Korean authorities are desperate to hold that line. The first reason for it is to shift the blame for escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula on
to the DPRK. The south Korean authorities are misleading public opinion, saying that as their military exercises are conducted within the “NLL,” any countermeasures of the Korean People’s Army are regarded as “provocation.” Their ulterior intention is to make the “theory on southward invasion by the DPRK” a fait accompli.
The second one is to nullify the June 15 Joint Declaration and its action programme, October 4 Declaration, which are regarded as milestones in the national reunification movement, and drive inter-Korean relationship to confrontation. From the outset of taking office the Lee Myung Bak group flatly rejected the two historic declarations and started to drive the relations between
the north and south to catastrophe. Particularly, they needed to stubbornly cling to the “NLL” in order to turn down the October 4 Declaration as a whole which specifies the detailed measures to establish a special zone of peace and economic cooperation on the West Sea, joint fishing grounds and peaceful waters so as to put an end to the inter-Korean hostile military relations and ensure détente and peace on the Korean peninsula.
The third reason lies on the connivance and encouragement of the United States that neither officially acknowledges the “NLL” nor abandons it.
Aggravating tensions in the Korean peninsula is in the interests of the US. The worse the situation in this area, which is of strategic importance, the more favourable it becomes for the US to justify its stationing troops in south Korea and the firmer it can take into its grip of the latter politically, economically and militarily. Recently it highlights its strategy of giving priority to Asia Pacific region, and tensions being racketed up in the Korean peninsula provide it a golden opportunity to increase its influence over Northeast Asia where great powers are concentrated.
The south Korean authorities themselves are sticking to this nonexistent line to take it as a consistent pretext of seeking provocation in order to drive the confrontation between the north and south to an uncontrollable extreme phase with the backing of the US and trigger off a north-targeted war with the latter.

To sustain peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, and to avert the ravages of a new war, this so-called Northern Limit Line or “NLL,” must disappear as soon as possible.