GK:1.1.2 Area
Geography of Korea: I. Korea's Natural Environment > 1. Geographical Setting and Area > 2) Area
2) Area
National territory or area consists of the legally recognized land, air and sea space belonging to a sovereign state, though in landlocked states such as Switzerland, Austria, Chad, Mongolia, Bolivia and the like, national territory consists only of land and airspace. The sovereign territory of a state is not only the essential element of its existence, but also forms a basis for the state’s power. In addition, national territory, as the living space of the people, plays host to the accumulated history and cultural norms of the nation.
Stretching about 1100 kilometers north to south, and including approximately 3400 islands scattered in its coastal waters, the total territorial area of the Korean Peninsula is about 220,000 square kilometers, with the territorial area of the Republic of Korea (or South Korea) about 100,000 square kilometers. In area, the entire Korean Peninsula is similar in size to Cambodia, Yemen, the United Kingdom, Romania, Uganda, Ecuador, and Uruguay. The area of South Korea, however, is more comparable in size to Austria, Hungary, Iceland, Bulgaria, Portugal, Cuba, Guatemala, and Honduras. In terms of area, the Korean Peninsula—North and South Korea taken together—ranks 80 among the approximately 200 states in the world.
To date, land reclamation efforts continue along South Korea’s southern and western coasts, so the country’s area is actually incrementally increasing. In 1960, the total area of South Korea was 98,430 square kilometers. By 2000, this had become 99,461 square kilometers, and by 2010, 100,033 square kilometers—an increase of 1600 square kilometers over fifty years.
The length of the Korean Peninsula from east-to-west is about 300 kilometers, while its north-to-south length (from Onseong in North Korea’s Hamgyeongbuk-do province to Haenam in South Korea’s Jeollanam-do province) is about 1070 kilometers. The peninsula’s elongated north-to-south formation, and the resulting climatic variations, have been major factors in the development of different lifestyles in the northern and southern regions.
As with other countries, South Korea’s territorial waters are determined from a baseline called the “territorial sea baseline.” A country’s territorial waters are those waters extending outward for 12 nautical miles from this territorial sea baseline. This territorial sea baseline can be determined by either what’s termed a “normal baseline” or a “straight baseline.” A normal baseline is calculated based on the coastline at low tide, a methodology usually applied to coasts such as the east coast of Korea that are relatively straight. For coastlines characterized by very curving coasts or ones populated by many islands, such as Korea’s western and southern shores, the straight baseline is used to establish the territorial waters. The straight baseline consists of a series of straight lines joining fixed points—the most outlying islands or landmasses. Since 1977, South Korea has declared its territorial waters as those extending out 12 nautical miles, and has determined its coastal waters as being those waters extending for 3 nautical miles from the outermost Korean island in the Straits of Korea.
Today, Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) are as important as territorial waters. EEZs extend for 200 nautical miles (about 370 km) from a country’s coast. The coastal state exercises exclusive rights over the resources contained within its EEZ. Following the Second World War, developing countries, which lacked marine development technology, attempted to extend the definition of territorial waters, while developed countries made efforts to narrow the definition of territorial waters while extending that of international waters. As a compromise, the international community recognized territorial waters as extending for 12 nautical miles from a country’s coastal baseline, while that area extending out 200 nautical miles from the baseline was recognized as the exclusive economic zone of the coastal state.
A country’s airspace refers to the air over a country’s territorial land and waters. A country’s exclusive sovereignty extends just as much to this airspace as it does over its territorial waters. In theory, just as a country’s territorial land includes control over all the mineral resources that lie beneath it, so would territorial airspace include control over all the air extending above it. In reality, however, airspace has certain limitations. These limitations have to do with the power of one country to shoot down the aircraft of another. Though ships passing through a country’s territorial waters have what is called the “right of innocent passage,” such a right does not extend to airspace. Thus, only in instances where a special agreement has been signed can aircraft from one country enter the territorial airspace of another.
