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&#x27;t think Japan recognizes it, but of course they wouldn&#x27;t.)<p>It&#x27;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 &quot;middle area&quot; which does not belong to either nation&#x27;s (currently accepted) EEZ.<p>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 &quot;international arbitration&quot; 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.