President Lee Myung-bak said Monday it is a matter of course that the rock outcropping of Ieodo off South Korea's Jeju Island will remain under Seoul's control in the future, days after a top Chinese maritime official reportedly laid claim to it.

Ieodo, submerged 4.6 meters, lies within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of South Korea and China. Although an international maritime law stipulates that a submerged rock cannot be claimed as territory by any country, South Korea effectively controls Ieodo, which is closer to it than any other country.

The issue has drawn public attention in South Korea recently following media reports that Liu Xigui, the chief of China's State Oceanic Administration, claimed in an interview with Beijing's Xinhua news agency that Ieodo is in waters under Chinese control and is part of areas patrolled by Chinese vessels and aircraft.

"First of all, we have to understand that the Ieodo issue is not a territorial matter ... because it is 4-5 meters under the sea surface," Lee said in a panel discussion with top editors at major local newspaper and broadcasting companies.

Lee said Seoul and Beijing have held 16 rounds of talks to demarcate their exclusive economic zones in the area but little progress has been made. If the overlapping areas are sorted out in future talks, Ieodo will "fall naturally into South Korean-controlled areas," he said.

Lee stressed that Ieodo is much closer to South Korea than to China.

Earlier in the day, Seoul's foreign ministry called in a diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Seoul and demanded he clarify the news report about the maritime official's remark.

South Korea has taken steps to reinforce its jurisdictional control over the islet and in 2003 built an unmanned maritime research station on it to monitor weather conditions and survey maritime features in the area.

Ieodo is located 149 kilometers southwest of Korea's southernmost island of Marado and 247 kilometers northeast of the nearest Chinese island Tongdao.