Exclusive economic zone of North Korea

The exclusive economic zone of North Korea stretches 200 nautical miles from its basepoints in both the Yellow Sea and the East sea.^[1] The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) was declared in 1977 after North Korea had contested the validity of the Northern Limit Lines (NLL) set up after the Korean War as maritime borders. The EEZ has not been codified in law and North Korea has never specified its coordinates, making it difficult to determine its specific scope.

In the Yellow Sea, the EEZ remains unspecified in the Korean Bay because China has not determined its own EEZ in the area. The border between the North Korean and South Korean EEZs in the Yellow Sea cannot be determined because of potential overlap and disputes over certain islands.

In the East sea, the North Korean EEZ can be approximated to be trapezoidal-shaped. The border between North Korea and Russia's respective EEZs is the only such border that has been determined in Northeast Asia. Here, the EEZ does not cause many problems, even with regards to South Korea, because the sea is not thought to be rich in natural resources.