Friday, May 17th, 2013
SEOUL, KOREA - Korea has become on May 15 one of the countries that have gained permanent observer status on the Arctic Council. With the new status in the increasingly influential international forum, Korea will be able to participate more actively in developing the Northern shipping route and resource exploration in the region.
The Arctic Council held a meeting on the same day in Kiruna, Sweden, and decided to allow six countries, India, Italy, Japan, and Singapore, as well as Korea, into the "coldrush club," a nickname reflecting the perceived opportunities in hydrocarbon resources above the Arctic Circle.
Established in 1996, the council has eight permanent members including the five coastal Arctic countries, Norway, Russia, Canada, the United States, and Denmark, and three other non-coastal countries, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. Until now, six European countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, have been accepted as permanent observers.
The new observers will have no voting rights and must also confirm they will not challenge the ownership of the five Arctic coastal states. In addition, they won't be able to directly raise issues but will have to bring them forward through one of the eight full members.
The Arctic has become strategically important to Korea because of the possibility of much-faster shipping routes between Europe and East Asia as the frozen sea routes are expected to open up due to warming climate. For example, it takes about 24 days for a Korean containership to make a one-way trip to a European destination. In contrast, the new Arctic route would cut the travel time to 10 days.