Denmark plans to claim Pole

DENMARK plans to lay claim to the North Pole and other areas in the Arctic, where melting ice is uncovering new shipping routes, fishing grounds and drilling opportunities for oil and gas.

A leaked draft document titled Strategy for the Arctic also says Denmark’s Science Ministry has started collecting data to formally submit a claim for those areas to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf no later than 2014.

The Danish government has confirmed the document, which was first obtained by Danish Radio and published online by newspaper Information, is genuine.

But Foreign Minister Lene Espersen said the strategy is still being reviewed and a final version is expected in June.