[KS] Korean Borders

[Frank Hoffmann]

Thanks for the clarification and info, Professor Ledyard.

About your explanation as regards to Kando (below), please allow me 
to further clarify what I tried to say before:

Yes, what you say about Kando being in Korean maps etc. is all 
correct, but that represents indeed the Korean view only -- now and 
then. When I wrote, and you criticized that, that the western half of 
the border was more of a loose concept, then this is exactly what I 
meant: Kando was during some periods considered Korean in Korea, but 
not so in China, which, as you point out yourself, was not even fully 
aware of the Manchu dealings with the Korean court on that issue. But 
I think we might miss the actual point here -- as I see it -- that 
is, most of the time it was a non-issue between the Chinese court and 
the Koreans, given the nature of the sadaejuûi relationship between 
Korea and Qing China.

Frank


>   As a result,
>many Korean emigrants from Hamgyong province, who had been streaming
>across the Tumen for years, were recognized to be living on Korean soil.
>This was the so-called Kando area (Dong Jiandao for the Chinese).  Korean
>maps of the period between 1888 and 1908 show this area as Korean
>territory; I have a Russian postcard of the late 1890s with a map of Korea
>showing Kando; and I have seen it shown on a map accompanying a British
>book published in the 1900s. It occupied about 21,000 sq. km. on the north
>bank of the Tumen between Paektusan and the Yukchin area. But after the
>Ulsa Treaty, which put Korea's foreign affairs under Japanese
>administration, the Chinese reopened the question and Ito Hirobumi signed
>Kando over to China, I think in 1908.  Of all territorial claims that
>Korea might make on China today, the Kando area is the one where Korea's
>case would be strong.  But of course it would get nowhere against China.


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Frank Hoffmann
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