The North Pole is not owned by any country. The Pole is the earth's northernmost geographic point, located at the northern end of the earth's axis. It lies in the Arctic Ocean, more than 7,200 kilometres north of Ellesmere Island, at a point where the ocean is 4,087 metres deep and usually covered with drifting pack ice.

A spokesperson for the legal branch of the federal External Affairs Department in Ottawa said no country has ever attempted to prove legal ownership of the area around the north pole.

"States have particularly defined rights and no state has rights at that point. No one has ever tried to lay claim to the pole," he said.