• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.30-43
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• 2003

The geography, circulation pattern, and ecology show that the semi-closed seas of Northwest Pacific be managed as one complete system. Ongoing multilateral cooperative efforts relevant to marine environmental protection in the Northwest Pacific area, include the Working Group for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) established under the auspices of WNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commissions, the UNDP/GEF Programme on Prevention and Management of Marine Pollution in East Asian Seas (PEMSEA), the North Pacific Marine Science Organization(PICES), and the United Nations Environment Programme(WNEP)'s Northwest Pacific Action Plan(NOWPAP). The present report firstly describes the current situations on the existing regional cooperative regimes for marine environmental conservation in the Northwest Pacific region, with a special respect to the Northwest Pacific Action Plan(NOWPAP) which was adopted in 1994 by Japan, People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation. Then, problems of the existing regimes are also discussed, together with the suggestion of the possible solutions, focusing on NOWPAP. Suggestions include: 1) the Northeast Asian countries should understand the importance of legally-binding regional convention, and should build up any legally-binding instrument which can function as a big umbrella for real regional cooperation without prejudice to the rights of the States, 2) At present stage, it will be possible to make a regional convention flexible without prejudice to the sovereign right of the States or territorial issues; 3) taking into account that the region often faces many generic political problems that often inhibit the effective collective actions on environmental issues, the leadership from UNEP or other international organizations is required; 4) strong institutional and financial framework should be made, and 5) multilateral efforts to respond to the new marine environmental threats should be taken at the regional level in order to protect the coastal and marine environments in the Northwest Pacific.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.193-241
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• 2015

China, Japan and Korea are the world's top 10 energy consumers, and so very interested in the development of seabed hydrocarbon resources in order to meet their energy demands. The East China Sea is the tri-junction area where three countries' entitlements on the maritime boundaries are overlapped. There are abundant oil reserves in the East China Sea, and therefore competitions among countries are growing to get control of them. Although these countries have concluded the bilateral agreements to jointly develop resources in the East China Sea, they do not function as well. Because joint development and management of seabed petroleum resources can lead to stable development system, and to lower possibility of legal and political disputes, the needs for joint development agreement among three countries are urgent. Meanwhile, Northeast Asian seas are semi-closed seas, which are geographically closed and vulnerable to marine pollution. Moreover there are a lot of nuclear power plants in coastal area, and seabed petroleum resources are being developed. So it is likely to occur nuclear and oil spill accidents. Fukushima nuclear disaster and Bohai Bay oil spill accident in 2011 are the cases to exhibit the potential of major marine pollution accidents in this area. It is anticipated that the risks become higher because power plants and offshore oil platforms are extending gradually. Therefore, the ways to seek the joint marine environmental protection agreement focused on regulation of nuclear power plant and offshore oil platform have to be considered. In this paper, we try to find the way to make joint development and joint environmental protection agreement in Northeast Asian seas. We concentrate on the measure to drive joint development of seabed petroleum deposits in East China Sea's overlap area, despite of maritime delimitation and territorial disputes, and we try to drive joint marine environmental protection system to respond to marine pollution and accidents due to offshore oil platform and nuclear power plants. Through these consideration, we seek solutions to deal with lack of energy, disputes of maritime territorial and boundary delimitation, and marine pollution in Northeast Asia.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.120-129
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• 2006

This paper aims at investigating the developments and challenges of Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP), a regional cooperation mechanism to protect marine environment in Northeast Asia. As one of 16 UNEP's Regional Seas Program, NOWPAP has evolved since its inception in 1994. Based on the belief that a cooperative institution may work more efficiently to address common regional concerns on marine environment, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have developed NOWPAP under the UNEP's leadership. NOWPAP now has its own independent secretariat, and 4 regional activity centers while expanding its partnership with other institutions. However, NOWPAP must address several challenges that it now faces for better achievement of its goals. They include consideration of unique geopolitical situation in this region, participation of North Korea, incorporation of sustainable development concept in its activities, reconsideration of equal opportunity principle for more efficient cooperation, and securing sufficient financial resources.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.961-970
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• 2003

The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment sparked off actions aimed at protecting the ocean on all scales. Physical science was essentially in the foreground, and the ecological dimension remained in the background as well. During the following two decades, ocean uses increased and spread unexpectedly, and there was an urgent need for management patterns to deal with coastal areas, regional seas, and with the ocean as a whole. Meanwhile, mainly thanks to the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme, the ecological dimension of the environmental issue became more evident, while the concept of sustainable development was designed by the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). As far as the ocean is concerned, by adopting Agenda 21, the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) could neither embrace a wholly ecology-oriented policy, nor adopt the concept of sustainable development in its whole extent. This circumstance encourages efforts to consider the ocean from an effective ecological perspective, and to explore how cultural and ecological systems have interacted. Hence the concept of diversity becomes an increasingly key factor.