Danes unfazed by latest wrinkle in Hans Island dispute

The territorial dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island, renewed this week by satellite imagery thatchanges the location of an international boundary, isn't much of a dispute, a Danish government official says.

Peter Tak Soe-Jensen, the head of legal services with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CBC News that the uninhabited rocky outcrop is low on his country's priority list.

He added that the Danes were not surprised by Canadian reports Thursday that modern mapping technology recasts the international boundary between the two nations:it runs through the middle of Hans Island in Arctic waters, not east of the island in Canadian territory as federal officials previously thought.

"I think both our side, the Danish-Greenlandic side, and the Canadian side always realized that the line dividing our sea between Canada and Greenland runs through the island, and not east of the island," he said Thursday.

"So that's not new information."

The 1.3-square-kilometre Hans Island sits in the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait between Canada's Ellesmere Island, and Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark.

Each country claims the barren, rocky island as its own, which has led to a much-publicized war of words over the years.

Soe-Jensen said the two countries have long agreed to disagree over ownership of Hans Island.

In September 2005, Canada and Denmark called a truce and have met periodically to discuss the issue. The most recent round of negotiations took place in June in Ottawa, and Soe-Jensen said they're continuing exploratory talks before trying to work out any sort of agreement.