Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage (북서항로/北西航路) is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean (북극해/北極海), along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Sought by explorers for centuries as a possible trade route, the Northwest Passage was first navigated by Roald Amundsen in 1903–1906. Until 2009, the Arctic pack ice prevented regular marine shipping throughout most of the year, but climate change has reduced the pack ice, and this Arctic shrinkage made the waterways more navigable.

The Passage consists of several possible routes through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. As a result of global climate change, the year-round ice-coverage on the Northwest Passage has been diminishing and the amount of international commercial shipping activity is expected to increase continuously in the Passage in the near future.

Key words
Northwest Passage, Arctic Ocean, climate change, sovereignty, internal waters, Arctic Council

Legal Status
This circumstance makes the international community to revisit the arguments on the legal status of the Northwest Passage. Canada’s international legal position on the Northwest Passage is that the waters of the Passage are historic internal waters.

It means that Canada has a sovereignty on the passage and she can control any foreign activities including navigation and overflight. It relies upon two legal bases for such position.

First, the waters that make up the Northwest Passage are Canada’s internal waters by virtue of a historical title that Canada enjoys.

Second, the waters are internal as they are on the landward side of strait baselines that Canada draws around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

However, the United States and the European Unkion protested the Canadian claims with the view that they could not see any international legal ground to support the claims.

Furthermore, the United States has insisted that the passage is the strait used for international navigation and that its ship and airplane can enjoy the right of transit passage in accordance with the international law of the sea.

Korea's Position
As a potential user of the Northwest Passage, we need to study the international legal issues throughly and find a way to secure our navigational right in the passage.

To this end, at first, we need to survey the geographical features of the Northwest Passage and the history of international legal dispute on the passage among Canada, the U.S. and the EU.

Secondly, it is necessary to examine the legitimacy of the three legal arguments of Canada and the U.S. on the legal status of the passage:
 * Whether Canada has a historic title on the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago;
 * Whether the Canadian Straight baselines around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are satisfied with the various criteria under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea;
 * Whether the Northwest Passage is fulfilled the geographic and functional requirements of the strait used for international navigation under the general international law.

Finally, it reviewed the possible way for the solution of the dispute within the dispute settlement system of the Convention and suggested some recommendations to the Korean Government to secure our interests on the Northwest Passage.