Well, of course Korea asserts Dokdo as part of its territory, and a small circle of water (of radius 12 nautical miles) around it as its territorial waters. (I

Well, of course Korea asserts Dokdo as part of its territory, and a small circle of water (of radius 12 nautical miles) around it as its territorial waters. (I don't think Japan recognizes it, but of course they wouldn't.) It's just that Dokdo was not used as a baseline (base point?) in drawing EEZ boundaries between Korea and Japan. So, outside the 12-mile circle, Dokdo is located inside the "middle area" which does not belong to either nation's (currently accepted) EEZ. IANAL, but I was under the impression that it was Korea who refuses international arbitration. (I mean, why would Korea agree to it? Even if the probability of the "international arbitration" deciding that Dokdo belongs to Japan is 0.01%, it is 0.01% too much.) Maybe you are talking about a different kind of arbitration.