• Strategy21
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• s.33
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• pp.113-147
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• 2014

While China's military rise is an issue of growing importance to regional security, it is worthwhile to note that it is not China's military modernization per se, but its capacity to project and sustain power along and beyond its borders--in particular, the possibility to resolve forcefully its outstanding maritime disputes and various contingencies. This essay argues that China's "anti-access capability"--a U.S.-coined term originally developed for a Taiwan contingency--is equally applicable to other major regional cases such as the Spratly disputes and a North Korean contingency. Furthermore, notwithstanding China's continuos efforts to develop and deploy various types and classes of weapons/platforms, it is the Russian systems and technologies that are most capable and thus likely assigned to the highest mission-critical areas. In assessing China's current and likely future military capability as well as their implications for the region, it is necessary to take note of the following: • There exists asymmetry of military capability between China and its weaker neighbors. While the PLAN is weak in several important aspects, for instance, many of its neighbors' navies are weaker still. • Some have argued that China's foreign policy behavior apparently became more "assertive" in 2009-2013, but it is wiser to keep in mind that China has almost always been assertive and aggressive when it comes to what China defines as "sovereignty and territorial issues" as well as its newest "core interests." • On the South China Sea disputes it is the function of U.S. presence in the theater--in the form of overseas bases and the freedom of navigation--and the PLA's own limitations to project and sustain power for an extended period of time that have largely prevented armed. • While Taiwan remains the idee fixe of China's diplomacy and military, it is and will be a tough nut to crack. China's recent creeping attempts for economic integration with Taiwan should be seen in this context. • China and Japan, the two regional heavyweights and traditional rivals, will likely have a bilateral relationship that is replete with difficulties and tension. China's unilateral announcement of its ADIZ in November 2013 as well as the occasional yet persistent disputes with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyudao/Diaoyutai islands are only the latest manifestation of this deeper and difficult relationship. • For Korean security it is imperative to take into account the geostrategic and historical factors. On top of the existing military threats from North Korea, the ROK should be able to employ a) hedging strategy, b) "limited defense sufficiency" strategy, and c) rock-solid relations with the United States.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.422-437
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• 2007

Dokdo has historical and political meaning in relation to the territorial problems with Japan. The area can be the main factor to explain the formation and development process of East-Sea as exposure volcanic island at East-Sea with Ulreong-island. Accordingly, it also has an important meaning of physical geography aspects In this research, it is perceived the geomorphological development process of slope due to the salt weathering which is considered as the most important factor to understand whole geomorphology of Dokdo. And researched how a geomorphology of this sort affects to animal and plants. The peculiar geomorphology is tafoni which is a weathering geomorphology and one of the remarkable geomorphology in preservation of Dokdo. Tafoni at west part of Dongdo is distributed intensively near shoreline which is composed tuff. The shape of tafoni is mainly massive, circle and oval in Massive tuff breccia layer also is formed toward horizontality bedding direction in Bedded lapilli tuff. Tafoni in Dokdo is constituted after middle of Holocene. This fact can be proved by ranging at surface of sea-cliff which is formed wave erosion after middle of Holocene sea-level reaching to present level. Tafoni is also the most contribute factor of geomorphology dissection of Dokdo as it is eroded the bed rock with salt weathering. In bottom part of tafoni it has an important function for habitat of birds. Herbaceous plants are on it. To procrastinate of bed rock dissection by growth of Tafoni, conservation of vegetation and soil are most important factor.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.215-225
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• 2011

During the past decade, the performance-based design method of caisson breakwaters has been developed, which allows a certain damage while maintaining the function of the structure. However, the existing method does not consider the changing coastal environment due to climate change impacts so that the stability of the structure is not guaranteed over the lifetime of the structure. In this paper, a time-dependent performance-based design method is developed, which is able to estimate the expected sliding distance and the probability of failure of a caisson breakwater considering the influence of sea level rise and wave height increase due to climate change. Especially, time-dependent probability of failure is calculated by considering the sea level rise and wave height increase as a function of time. The developed method was applied to the East Breakwater of the Hitachinaka Port which is located on the east coast of Japan. It was shown that the influence of wave height increase is much greater than that of sea level rise, because the magnitude of sea level rise is negligibly small compared with the water depth at the breakwater site. Moreover, investigation was made for the change of caisson width due to climate change impacts, which is the main concern of harbor engineers. The longer the structure lifetime, the greater was the increase of caisson width. The required increase of caisson width of the Hitachinaka breakwater whose width is 22 m at present was about 0.5 m and 1.5 m respectively for parabolic and linear wave height increase due to climate change.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.275-289
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• 2018

It is necessary to develop a bridgehead port for trading with northern countries to promote trade through the East Sea because the East Sea Rim economic bloc around the Northeast Asia including South Korea, China, Russia, Japan, and North Korea has a high growth potential in the future. Therefore, this study aims to suggest a strategic direction to enhance the competitiveness of Donghae Port through reinforcement of container cargoes by conducting Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) for stakeholders of Donghae Port. The analysis results suggest that it is necessary to improve the five evaluation factors: attractiveness of container and bulk volumes, appropriate ratio of export/import container quantities, frequency of vessel entry and diversity of sea routes, convenience of complex linked transportation, and competitiveness of cargo handling equipment. The implications of this study are as follows. First, it is necessary to continuously research the current status of container and bulk cargo volumes of the port and ways to increase the absolute cargo volume. Second, we need to consider realistic alternatives to improve the ratio of export/import container quantities. Third, in terms of network, we should establish a service improvement plan to increase the frequency of port calls and the diversity of sea routes. Furthermore, incentives should be provided to increase the trade volume of Donghae Port through strengthened complex linked transportation function. Finally, it is urgently necessary to provide investment support for container handling equipment as an essential requirement for the activation of the container cargoes in Donghae Port.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.73-85
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• 2022

The cynoglossid fishes are popular for food in the world including Korea, China and Japan, and among them, Paraplagusia japonica lives all over the sea of Korea. In order to establish appropriate management measure, it is essential to clarify population structure of P. japonica from the morphological and molecular perspectives. We collected a total of 132 individuals of P. japonica from six localities in Korea between 2008 and 2021. Canonical discriminant analysis results showed that the West Sea population (Incheon) slightly differed from the South (Tongyeong, Busan) and East Sea populations (Pohang, Donghae, Sokcho). Similar results were also shown in Kruskal-Wallis test of meristic characters. Furthermore, neighbor-joining and maximum-likelihood trees based on 849 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b sequences showed that P. japonica was divided into two lineages (designated as A and B) with a high significance (Φ_st=0.0781, P<0.001). Interestingly, however, the two lineages in the admixture area (South-East Sea) were not different in morphological characters. Our results suggest that P. japonica had undergone differentiated history during the Late Pleistocene, but secondary contact may occur at the admixture area.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.111-119
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• 2009

Biogenic surface films, which are often present in coastal areas, may enhance the signatures of hydrodynamic processes in microwave, optical, and infrared imagery. We analyzed ERS-1/2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images taken over the Japan/East Sea (JES). We focused on the appearance of the contrast SAR signatures, particularly the dark features of different scales caused by various oceanic and atmospheric phenomena. Spiral eddies of different scales were detected through surface film patterns both near the coast and in the open regions of the JES in warm and cold seasons. During field experiments carried out at the Pacific Oceanological Institute (POI) Marine Station 'Cape Shults' in Peter the Great Bay, the sea surface roughness characteristics were measured during the day and night using a developed polarization spectrophotometer and various digital cameras and systems of floats. The velocity of natural and artificial slicks was estimated using video and ADCP time series of tracers deployed on the sea surface. The slopes of gravity-capillary wave power spectra varied between .4 and .5. Surface currents in the natural and artificial slicks increased with the distance from the coast, varying between 4 and 40 cm/s. The contrast of biogenic and anthropogenic slicks detected on vertical and horizontal polarization images against the background varied over a wide range. SAR images and ancillary satellite and field data were processed and analyzed using specialized GIS for marine coastal areas.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.491-500
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• 2002

Magnetic anomalies in the Dokdo and it's surroundings were investigated with respect to structure and origin of the Dokdo and surrounding seamounts. After normal and diurnal correction of measured magnetic data, crossover correction was applied to reduce errors between sets of magnetic anomalies. The errors from crossover operation result in decrease of about 51%, from 62.2 nT to 30.1 nT in standard deviation. Reduction-to-the-pole, second vertical derivative and analytic signal processing were applied to explore magnetic anomaly signatures in detail. Magnetic anomalies are most complicated in the 1st-Dok seamount, show SWW-NEE linear pattern in the 2nd-Dok seamount and lower to the 3rd-Dok seamount. Different magnetic anomaly patterns in three seamounts imply that three volcanic seamounts were formed at different times and are composed of rocks that were produced in different conditions. It seems that the 3rd-Dok seamount was first to form and followed by the 1st-Dok seamount. The complicated magnetic and second vertical derivative anomaly patterns in the 1st-Dok seamount may be due to subsidiary cones around crater or the presence of intruded magma bodies below sea surface and the Dokdo is probably a marginal subsidiary part of crater.

• Maritime Security
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.149-173
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• 2020

While the United States and other Western states are in trouble with COVID-19 crisis, China is continuing its aggressive ocean expansion with its Gray-zone strategy. The Gray-zone strategy, which China uses around the South China Sea, refers to a strategy that promotes a change in international politics by creating an unclear state, neither war or peace. China, which is trying to expand its influence across East Asia, will also try to project a Gray zone strategy on the Korean Peninsula. The possible scenarios are as follows: 1) South Korea is accidentally involved in a dispute in the South China Sea, 2) Military conflicts between South Korea and China is caused by illegal fishing of Chinese boats in Yellow Sea, 3) China tries to interfere with Socotra Rock, 4) Unlikely, but possible in the future that China induce the military conflicts between Korea and Japan on the Dokdo issue. In order to cope with these scenarios, Korea should prepare the following measures from a long-term perspective: the creation of an Asian maritime safety fleet, the integ rated operation of the navy and the coast guard in the framework of the national fleet, and strengthening the conflict control system for China's provocations.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.315-327
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• 2007

This study investigated temporal and spatial variation of Pb and stable Pb isotopes accumulated in Ulleung Basin core sediments (4) using MC ICP/MS in order to identify the sources of anthropogenic Pb in the East/Japan Sea. Leached (1M HCl) Pb concentration and isotope ratios ($^{207}Pb/^{206}Pb\;and\;^{208}Pb/^{206}Pb$) were nearly constant during 300 yrs past than 1930, but increased up to twice in concentration and as much as 3.41% (1.70%) after 2000. On the other hand, residual Pb concentrations were nearly constant for past 400 yrs. The accumulation rates of anthropogenic Pb in the basin area were in the range of $3.1-3.5mg/m^2/yr$, which were similar levels to total atmospheric Pb deposition fluxes from 1990s to the present. In the slope area, more increase of anthropogenic Pb accumulation than the levels expected from mass accumulation rate could be found after the middle of 1990s. From the detailed evaluation for the temporal and spatial variation of accumulation rate and isotope ratios of anthropogenic Pb, we proposed probable sources and pathways of anthropogenic Pb. Pb emmision by coal burning from the China and Korea initiated the accumulation of anthropogenic Pb in the sediments of East/Japan Sea from 1930s. The accumulation of Pb increased by the addition of anti-nocking agents from both countries untill the beginning of 1990s, but from the middle of 1990s to the present, the phase-out of gasoline additives and the rapid increase of coal burning from the China maintained the atmospheric Pb levels in the Ulleung basin nearly similar to before. However, the local sources within this basin might take an important role in the rapid increase of anthropogenic Pb accumulation in slope areas from the middle of 1990s.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.9-26
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• 1999

The Ulleung Basin (Tsushima Basin) in the southwestern East Sea (Japan Sea) is floored by a crust whose affinity is not known whether oceanic or thinned continental. This ambiguity resulted in unconstrained mechanisms of basin evolution. The present work attempts to define the nature of the crust of the Ulleung Basin and its tectonic evolution using seismic wide-angle reflection and refraction data recorded on ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs). Although the thickness of (10 km) of the crust is greater than typical oceanic crust, tau-p analysis of OBS data and forward modeling by 2-D ray tracing suggest that it is oceanic in character: (1) the crust consists of laterally consistent upper and lower layers that are typical of oceanic layers 2 and 3 in seismic velocity and gradient distribution and (2) layer 2C, the transition between layer 2 and layer 3 in oceanic crust, is manifested by a continuous velocity increase from 5.7 to 6.3 km/s over the thickness interval of about 1 km between the upper and lower layers. Therefore it is not likely that the Ulleung Basin was formed by the crustal extension of the southwestern Japan Arc where crustal structure is typically continental. Instead, the thickness of the crust and its velocity structure suggest that the Ulleung Basin was formed by seafloor spreading in a region of hotter than normal mantle surrounding a distant mantle plume, not directly above the core of the plume. It seems that the mantle plume was located in northeast China. This suggestion is consistent with geochemical data that indicate the influence of a mantle plume on the production of volcanic rocks in and around the Ulleung Basin. Thus we propose that the opening models of the southwestern East Sea should incorporate seafloor spreading and the influence of a mantle plume rather than the extension of the crust of the Japan Arc.