Q. Please explain about Sea-cret.

A. Sea-cret, an annual event of Dept. of International Relations, the national students’ conference. It was held at October 4th and continued for 2 days. The main topic of the conference was a marine territorial dispute in East Asia. Students from various universities gathered in CWNU’s education hall and discussed several detailed topics. Two students made up one team and expressed their opinion. The first session was about Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ), the second session was about the marine territorial dispute in East Asia and position of various countries, and the third session was about seeking joint development of marine resources in East Asia and association of regional cooperation. Session 1 was in English and Session 2&3 were in Korean.

Q. What did you do at the conference?

A. I handled marine boundaries and international laws in the first session. My teammate, Kwak Da-som(11), Dept. of International Relations, and I investigated data on the International Court of Justice(ICJ), International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and precedents of them and prepared our presentation in English. We also applied those problems and examples to our problems like Dokdo or Ieodo and tried to find a solution.

I especially remember one topic I presented. It was about ICJ’s judgment in conflict between Norway and England. England accused Norway of having a too large part of the sea. In the 1940s, England was the powerful nation ruling the sea. However ICJ was not in England’s favor. It judged on the basis of Norway’s special environment, historic tradition, and dependence on the fishing industry. It was a very world-shaking case because the judgment of ICJ was fair and reasonable without being swayed by the authority.

We did our best in a very short time and finally we won the third prize. I will not be able to forget the moment of our team being called.

Q. What did you gain from this experience?

A. I was surprised by active students’ participation and the power of unity. There were three short plays about territorial disputes made by students themselves and they practiced for a long time. One play was memorable to me. It was a love triangle story of Dokdo, Korea, and Japan. Korea and Japan want to play with Dokdo and so fight each other, but make their peace in the end. The plays were allegorical and instructive.

Also I met many good people. Even though I am a student with a double major here, they did not discriminate against me at all. I appreciate them for giving me a chance to take part in the conference together. And I got some confidence in my abilities for the future. Originally, I wanted to know about relations between various countries and make a proper solution for everyone. This conference related to my aim as I am studying in the Dept. of International Relations. I learned so many things that I cannot gain from books or lectures. If there is another symposium, I will participate again.

Jo Young-in  youngwon13@naver.com

<저작권자 © The Campus Journal, 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지>