But the region is working out its troubles with a series of agreements that could help cool off the conflict. Both Japan and South Korea have established 230-mile exclusive economic zones under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. After years of negotiation, the two countries last year signed a treaty setting quotas and regulations in each other's zones. A similar agreement came this year between Japan and China. Tokyo and Moscow have yet to work out a lasting agreement on the Kurils, but fishing officials from both countries regularly meet.
Trouble remains, though.
Of particular concern is the explosive growth of China's fishing production. By far the world's biggest fisher, China produced a whopping 40.8 million tons of sea products in 1999, nearly doubling its output in just five years. A new hot spot could be brewing in the Yellow Sea, as Chinese boats fish ever closer to the Korean Peninsula and risk arrest by the South Korean navy. The tendency of some of the boats to fish near the disputed boundary between North and South Korean waters is a potential troublemaker, said Mark Valencia, research fellow at the University of Hawaii's East-West Center. This is dangerous.