Dastardly Chinese Try to Claim Paektusan!

Update: Yup — called it. The netizens’ charge of the ChiCom lines was repulsed, and the South Korean government leads the panicky flight … like 1951 all over again. North Korea, whose physical boundaries are at the center of the dispute (more), is no doubt preparing its latest draft North-South statement on Tokdo. So what do the Chinese know that we don’t?

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It’s pretty thin gruel if you read the report, but on the other hand, China is in a much better position to grab Paektusan than Japan is to grab Tokdo, and much more likely to actually do it. Plus, if Korea lost Paektusan, it might actually miss it.

Seoul and Beijing have been at odds in the past over Chinese claims to about 400,000 square kilometers (154,440 square miles) of territory that is roughly centered on Mount Paekdu. Beijing has claimed the area is “historically Chinese,” but this assertion has irked Seoul as it includes ancient Manchurian kingdoms, such as Goguryeo and a successor state called Balhae, as being part of China’s history.

I wonder how many VANKers will go to MOPP-4 and bounding overwatch over this one. Prediction: few. For one thing, the fact that Paektu is split between China and North Korea undermines the North’s claim as the authentic bearer of Korea’s nationalist standard. For another, no one believes China would just sit by quietly and allow itself to become the object of netizen “cyberterrorism,” which is a creative pretext for censorship if I’ve ever seen one. South Koreans may attack the United States and Japan freely, but China would do what it did when the Dalai Lama asked for a visa: it would exercise its veto.

(pic)

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Richardson says:

January 29, 2007 at 1:51 pm

Maybe Dresnok Jr. will lead the charge?
James Chen says:

January 29, 2007 at 4:56 pm

It looks like the Oracle at Delphi, only with Asian faces.
NKeconWatch says:

January 29, 2007 at 5:59 pm

I noticed reports of China eyeing Pektu in the Japanese press in May 2006, when it was revelaed that China was building an airport with access to Pektu. In August of 2006, it was also confirmed that China was building a fence along the PRC/DPRK mountain border. China has also moved to register Pektu with UNESCO, and last September, lit a giant torch to celebrate the sixth Winter Asian Games.

China and North Korea supposedly established the current border in 1962. The DPRK controls 54.5% of the mountain, and China occupies the remaining 45.5%.
Mark says:

January 30, 2007 at 5:50 am

Lebensraum.
usinkorea says:

January 30, 2007 at 8:03 pm

But one thing is that none of this is really new news. The latest moves are, but the debate about whether Parhae and Korguryeo and even some of the ancient kingdoms further down the peninsula to Pyongyang (can’t remember if it made it to the Han river or not) were ethnic Chinese or Korean has been going on in academic circles forever.

I could be wrong, but doesn’t even Korean scholarship state that Korguryeo (sp?) was a Korean kingdom – but defined by an ethnic Korean ruling class (monarchy) over a non-ethnic Korean tribal people(s) (at least in the Manchurian area????

I’ve always been curious about wanting to see a real, authentic, unbiased, well-sourced (mainly archeological I’d guess) history of the northern half of the Korean peninsula…

I know even late in the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910), the areas that are now provinces of northern North Korea were administered as military and not civil zones (in a Confucianistic society where militarism was not a good thing) and the government promoted immigration into the region to settle it more (as a way to deal with tribal raids from Manchurian territory.

But the only way I’m going to get to read that kind of history is when I die and go to heaven….

….and by then….I’ll just ask God to plop in the DVD version for me to watch….
Won Joon Choe says:

January 31, 2007 at 1:53 pm

uskinKorea,

You are thinking of Balhae, not Koguryo. Most Korean historians do concede that the majority of Balhae population was Mohe (“Malgal” in Korean). The historically contentious issue is rather the make-up of the Balhae royalty and aristocracy.
usinkorea says:

January 31, 2007 at 5:14 pm

Yeah, but Parhae is basically the northern part of the Koguryo kingdom after it fell?

Was there a mass exodus at the fall of Korguryo that fundamentally altered the ethnic mix in the Manchuria area?

I seem to remember the last king and court of Korguryo did in fact march south to surrender to Shilla, but I didn’t get the impression that the bulk of the Korean population left the soon-to-be Parhae region too….

In fact, it would make more sense logically if there wasn’t such a mass exodus, because some groups or Koreans in that region still had enoug power (somehow) to control the area as Korean kingdom (with the masses being of different non-Korean tribes.

I only know of tid bits here and there for all this though…

My guess is still, though, that the ethnic make up of that region that was Parhae was similar both before and after the fall of Koguryo.
korea4one says:

February 8, 2008 at 10:08 pm

Manchuria always have been part of Korean peninsula and part of Korean history. It was recent move that Chinese nationalist scholars began to use the word called ” China Eastern Sphere” movement. They began to distort Korguryo and Baekdoosan has part of China.

In reality the ” Great Wall” of china divided China and Manchuria territorty. Manchuria never belong to China. Majority of Chinese scholars know the fact ” Korguryo and Baekdoosan” is truly Korea.

China is afraid of ” Korean capitalism” they are trying to build defence wall between China and Korea. In reality you cannot play with history and land boundary. In reality it will creat a War between two countries. At the moment North Korea is so brainwashed toward ” Kim Chong Ill and Kim Il Sung Ideology” they really cannot think. This is were South Korean must come in.

After Beijing Olympic: Going to be New ( Historical and Territorial) friciton between Korea and China.