Gando
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| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 간도 |
| Hanja | 間島 |
| Revised Romanization | Gando |
| McCune-Reischauer | Kando |
| Chinese name | |
| Traditional Chinese | 間島 |
| Simplified Chinese | 间岛 |
| Pinyin | Jiāndǎo |
| Wade-Giles | Chien-tao |
| Japanese name | |
| Kanji | 間島 |
| Hepburn Romaji | Kantō |
Gando, Jiandao, and Kantō are the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese pronunciations of a name (間島) that refers to parts of Manchuria populated by Koreans. Jiandao Province (間島省) was also one of the provinces of Manchukuo, a World War II-era Japanese puppet state in Manchuria. Its capital was Yanji.
Today, most of the region is part of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, a part of Jilin Province of the People's Republic of China. In China, Yanbian (延邊; Yenbyen 옌볜, or Yeonbyeon 연변 in Korean) is the usual name used, and Jiandao is rarely used, due to its association with Japanese occupation. North Korea and South Korea acknowledge the region as a part of China, but there are some groups in Korea that claim the region as a historical part of Korea.
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History
Multiple states succeeded each other in ruling the area in ancient times. These included Goguryeo / Gaogouli and Bohai / Balhae. The first, called Goguryeo in Korean and Gaogouli in Chinese, is generally acknowledged as one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, However, much of its early history was concentrated in what is now Manchuria, so that China now regards that part of Gaogouli's history as its own cultural heritage. The second, called Bohai in Chinese and Balhae in Korean, was a state that existed in the area during the Tang Dynasty in China and the Unified Silla Period in Korea. China emphasis Bohai's tributary relationship to the Tang, while Korea claims that Balhae was a cultural extension of Goguryeo.
Bohai / Balhae was destroyed by the Khitan Liao Dynasty in 926, and formally annexed in 936. For the next several centuries the region changed hands between the Khitans, Jurchens, Mongols, and finally, the Manchus, whose Qing Dynasty succeeded in conquering China and forcing submission from the Joseon Dynasty in Korea.
For years, Qing officials did not allow people to move to Manchuria, as it always believed that should a Han majority government rise again in China, the Manchu royalty can flee to this area and retain a strong base to recover control in China. Joseon officials also did not allow its subjects to move to Manchuria. These governmental regulations with the general marshy nature of the area left Gando undeveloped and sparsely inhabited for long time. However, by late 19th century, significant amount of Koreans were moving into Manchuria, and even more arrived as Korea became a colony of Japan in 1910.
In 1905, the Korean Empire became a protectorate of Japan, effectively losing diplomatic rights. On April 18, 1906, a team of Japanese military invaded Gando and declared ownership over the region. In the Gando Convention of 1909, Japan affirmed territorial rights of the Qing over Gando after the Chinese foreign ministry issued a thirteen-point refutation statement regarding its rightful ownership. Nevertheless there were large Koreans settlements and the area remained under significant Japanese influence.
Between 1931 to 1945, Manchuria was under the control of Manchukuo, a Japanese client state. Jiandao was a province of Manchukuo. After World War II and the liberation of Korea, many Korean expatriates in the region moved back, but a significant majority still remained in Manchuria; descendants of these people form the Korean ethnic minority in China today.
The area is now the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province.
Boundary claims
Korean claims over Gando stem from what is perceived as an ambiguity in the original Sino-Korean boundary agreement.
In 1712, the Joseon of Korea and Qing of China agreed to set the boundaries of the two countries at the Yalu and Tumen Rivers. The Yalu (鴨綠) / Amnok (압록) River boundary is of little dispute, but the interpretation of the Tumen 土門 (토문) causes problems. China identifies the Tumen as the modern Tumen River, which is written as 圖們 in modern Chinese. However, it is written as 豆滿 (두만) "Duman" in modern Korean. Some Koreans hence identify it with another Tumen River that joins the Songhua River.
This confusion arises as the two names sound identical, and neither name is actually of Chinese origin. The two rivers can be seen in the following map from the period. It is uncertain which modern river the Korean claim corresponds to, as there is no modern tributary of the Songhua River with that name.
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The Korean claims commonly make use of maps such as the following (Map 2: late 18th century English origin; Map 3: early 19th century German origin; Map 4: mid 19th century Russian origin). It is difficult to tell, however, whether the borders depicted are the same as the modern Sino-Korean border, as these maps are not particularly accurate.
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Other maps, made by Korea, tend to show Sino-Korean borders to be the same as those today:
| Missing image Dongguk_daejido_late_1700.jpg | Missing image Josun_jundo_jido_late_1700.jpg | Missing image Haehaejoa_jundo_1850.jpg | Missing image Daedongyeojido_1860.jpg | Missing image Daedongyeojido_1861.jpg |
After liberation of Korea in 1945, many Koreans believed that Gando should be given to Korean rule, but the military control by United States of America in the south and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the north hindered any unified Korean claim to the territory. The chaos of the Korean War and the geopolitical situation of the Cold War effectively diminished any opportunity for Koreans to highlight the Gando issue. In 1962, North Korea signed a boundary treaty with People's Republic of China setting the Korean boundary at Yalu and Tumen, effectively foregoing territorial claims to Gando. South Korea also recognizes this as the boundary between Korea and China.
Today, none of the governments involved (North Korea, South Korea, People's Republic of China, or Japan) make the claim that Gando is Korean territory. In addition, there is very little enthusiasm for irredentism among the Korean minority in China. Although there are occasional arguments over historical interpretation, this issue arouses very little emotion or official interest on the part of any of the parties, and relations between China and both Koreas remain warm.
In 2004 the South Korean government issued a statement to the effect that it believed that the Gando Convention was null and void. The resultant controversy and strong negative reaction from the PRC led to a retraction of the statement, along with an explanation that its issuance was an "administrative error."
A small number of South Korean activists believe that under a unified Korea, the treaties signed by North Korea can be deemed null, allowing the unified Korea to actively seek regress for Gando. However, the current political situation make this a faint possibility at best. Also, some scholars claims that China's efforts to incorporate the history of Goguryeo and Barhae into Chinese history is an effectively pre-emptive move to squash any territorial disputes that might rise regarding Gando before a unified Korea can claim such or the Korean ethnic minority in the Manchuria region claim to become part of Korea.
Military Airport on Gran Canaria, Spain
Gando is also a military airport on Gran Canaria, Spain at 27°55′ N 15°19′ W.
From Gando the Spanish satellite Minisat01 was launched. Therefore a plane of the type L-1011 was started with a Pegasus-rocket. This rocket was dropped at 27°00′ N 15°30′ W over the atlantic ocean and ignited.