Military Activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone: Preventing Uncertainty and Defusing Conflict

• Author: Hyun-Soo Kim
• Position: Professor of International Law and Director of the Law of the Sea Research Division of the Republic of Korea Naval War College
• Pages: 257-262

XIII

Military Activities in the

Exclusive Economic Zone:

Preventing Uncertainty and Defusing Conflict

Hyun-Soo Kim1

Coastal States have jurisdiction over the establishment of artificial islands, in-

stallations and structures under the 1982 United Nations Convention on

the Law of the Sea (hereinafter the LOS Convention).2On the other hand, foreign

States enjoy freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight, and freedom to lay sub-

marine cables and pipelines in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of coastal

States. 3The contemporary issue in the LOS Convention is whether foreign States

have the right to conduct military activities, including naval task force maneuver-

ing, flight operations, military exercises, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and

weapons testing or firing, in coastal States' EEZs.

It is argued that the foreign States' military and missile exercises may result in vi-

olating the LOS Convention in two fundamental respects: first, it will interfere with

reasonable use ofthe high seas by others; and, second, it will violate the prohibition

against use of the high seas for non-peaceful purposes.4Thus, foreign States' mili-

tary activities in the EEZs ofcoastal States would be inconsistent with the principles

and norms governing States' military actions at sea under international conven-

tions or customary law. 5