The Chinese-Korean border issue: An analysis of a contested frontier

Asian Survey

Volumn 46, Issue 6, 2006, Pages 867-880

  Gomà, Daniel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA   (Spain)

Author keywords

Border dispute; Chaoxianzu; China; North and South Korea; Paektusan

Indexed keywords

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; POLITICAL BORDER; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POLITICAL DISCOURSE;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; KOREA;

EID: 33846066425     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2006.46.6.867     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. Note, scholarly investigation of the many facets of this issue remains impeded by a relative scarcity of original source materials on the subject, owing to the protectionist nature of the countries involved and the delicacy of their mutual diplomatic strategies.
2. The name "Jiandao" fell into disuse after 1949 because of its association with the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s and 1940s.
3. "Gando New Source of Friction: Seoul, Beijing Brace for Fresh Round of Historical Bout," Korea Times, September 8, 2004, , accessed April 26, 2006.
4. Although Korea became a colony of Imperial Japan in 1910, it had been a Japanese protectorate since 1905 and Tokyo controlled Korea's foreign policy.
5. The Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region was founded on September 3, 1952. After ratification of China's 1954 Constitution, the region was renamed in December 1955 as the YKAP.
6. In 2333 B.C., Tangun would found the kingdom of Ancient Choson, considered the first Korean state.
7. Zhongguo Tongji Nianjian, 2002 [China statistical yearbook, 2002] (Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, 2003), p. 48. This number comes from the 2000 census, the latest one carried out in China.
8. Chae-Jin Lee, China and Korea: Dynamic Relations (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1996), p. 100.
9. Yang Tae-jin, "Territorial Dispute between North Korea and Communist China," in Vantage Point 9:6, Seoul (June 1983), p. 5.
10. Government of the PRC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Protocol on Tri-junction of the Boundary between and among China, North Korea, and Russia in the Tumen River, , accessed April 25, 2006.
11. Yang, "Territorial Dispute," p. 5.
12. Two months before the agreement, Chinese President Liu Shaoqi visited the DPRK and signaled the height of the Sino-North Korean rapprochement.
13. For the Soviet-North Korean agreement, see Choon-ho Park, "River and Maritime Boundary Problems between North Korea and Russia in the Tumen River and the Sea of Japan," Korean Journal of Defense Analysis 5:2(Winter 1993), pp. 74-98.
14. Lee, China and Korea, pp. 99-100.
15. Chin O Chung, P'yongyang between Peking and Moscow: North Korea's Involvement in the Sino-Soviet Dispute, 1958-1975 (University, Al.: University of Alabama Press, 1978), p. 120. China abandoned this claim in November 1970 owing to the improvement of bilateral relations after Zhou Enlai's visit to Pyongyang in April.
16. "Government Considers Gando Convention Null and Void: Foreign Ministry Materials," Chosun Ilbo [Choson Daily] (Seoul), October 13, 2004, , accessed April 26, 2006.
17. Between 1960 and 1991, North Korea played two hands at once in dealing with its two allies, the Soviet Union and the PRC, which permitted Pyongyang to obtain important benefits taking advantage of the Sino-Soviet dispute. In this period the North Korean regime obtained political support and economic and military assistance from Beijing and Moscow.
18. Pyong Gap Min, "A Comparison of the Korean Minorities in China and Japan," International Migration Review 26:1 (Spring 1992), p. 6.
19. In the year 2000 census, the Korean community constituted 1,923,842 people. See Zhongguo tongji nianjian, p. 48.
20. Sébastien Colin, "Une Ouverture Frontalière aux Multiples Enjeux Géopolitiques: La Préfecture Autonome des Coréens de Yanbian" [A border opening onto numerous geopolitical issues: The Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture], Perpectives Chinoises [Chinese Perspectives] 77, Hong Kong (May-June 2003), p. 4.
21. Victor D. Cha, "Engaging China: Seoul-Beijing Détente and Korean Security," Survival 41:1 (Spring 1999), p. 92.
22. Ironically, today South Korean nationals can only visit the Chinese side of Paektusan.
23. "Attitudes on Korea, China, and Japan," Dong-A Ilbo [East Asia Daily] (Seoul), April 26, 2005.
24. "What's in a Name?" Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2005.