Denmark has filed a claim with a United Nations panel over an area of the Arctic including the North Pole.
The country says an area surrounding the North Pole is connected to the continental shelf of Greenland which is a Danish autonomous territory.
Canada and Russia have already made claims over this part of the Artic which is energy rich.
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Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country is entitled to a continental shelf that extends a distance of 200 nautical miles from its coast.
Any claims beyond that have to be backed up by scientific and technical data.
That's where a United Nations body - the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf or CLCS - plays an important role.
Professor Rosemary Rayfuse is a specialist in the Law of the Sea and told Greg Dyett about what the commission does and doen't determine.
