China has recently reasserted a jurisdictional claim to Ieodo, challenging Korea’s control of the submerged rock in waters southwest of Jeju Island. The Seoul government needs to respond sternly to any Chinese attempt to invalidate Korea’s jurisdiction over the underwater outcropping.

According to Chinese media reports, China’s State Oceanic Administration has disclosed a plan to strengthen surveillance of uninhibited islands and islets under Beijing’s jurisdiction using unmanned aerial vehicles.

The powerful state agency has conducted a pilot program in which drones equipped with remote-sensing instruments were deployed to take photos of sea areas. Based on the experience, the agency plans to set up UAV surveillance bases in provinces along China’s coastline by 2015.

The plan appears to be aimed at enhancing the monitoring of the islands at the core of territorial disputes with neighboring countries. Currently, China is sparring with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea and with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

Yet media reports said Ieodo would be also subject to the UAV surveillance plan. If these reports are true, it means China intends to challenge Korea’s jurisdiction over the rock, which is 4.6 meters below the sea level.

It is not the first time that China irked Korea by laying a claim to Ieodo, which is internationally known as Socotra Rock. In March, Liu Cigui, director of the SOA, said that the disputed rock would be included among the islands to be patrolled by the agency’s ocean surveillance vessels and aircraft.

According to the tally of the Korean Coast Guard, Chinese vessels and aircraft conducted surveillance on Ieodo 92 times during the past three years. The frequency of surveillance increased from 16 times in 2009 and 2010 to 60 in 2011.

Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a submerged rock cannot be claimed as territory by any country. Yet Korea and China have been in dispute over its jurisdiction as it is related to delimiting their exclusive economic zones.

Ieodo lies within the two countries’ overlapping EEZs, causing them to claim jurisdiction simultaneously. Since 1996, they have held 16 rounds of talks to draw the boundary between the EEZs, but to no avail.

Yet Korea has the upper hand in this dispute, given that the most widely accepted approach to drawing a dividing line between two overlapping EEZs is the “median line principle,” which regards the equidistant line from the shores of the two countries as the boundary.

When this principle is applied, Ieodo definitely falls into the Korean EEZ. The rock is located 149 km southwest of Marado, Korea’s southernmost island. For China, the closest island to it is Yushan Island of Zhejiang province, which is 287 km away.

Yet China refuses to recognize this international norm and seeks to flex its political, military and economic muscle to fix the border in its favor. This is why the negotiations on the EEZs have made little headway thus far.

Under these circumstances, Korea began to exercise its jurisdiction over Ieodo. In 2003, it set up an unmanned research station on it to monitor weather conditions, conduct marine research and enhance maritime safety in the area, which is prone to accidents.

China criticizes Korea for setting up an illegal installation on the rock, but the UNCLOS treaty stipulates that a nation has jurisdiction in its EEZ with regard to the establishment and use of installations and marine scientific research.

As China has recently displayed a penchant for expansionism, the Seoul government needs to increase vigilance against possible Chinese attempts to invalidate Korea’s jurisdiction over Ieodo.

On Tuesday, China officially launched its first aircraft carrier, raising concerns among its neighbors that it might use its enhanced military power to bully them.

In the face of growing threats from China, Korea needs to beef up its own maritime forces. It should speed up the construction of the naval base in Jeju Island and significantly reinforce the Coast Guard, which is suffering a serious shortage of manpower and vessels.

For Korea, the best way to resolve the matter is to conclude the EEZ talks with China. Hence it needs to press China to wrap up the dragging negotiations as early as possible.

China should realize that it has everything to lose and nothing to gain by trying to resolve maritime disputes with small neighboring countries through saber-rattling.