Aletheia et al:
Several years ago at an IBRU workshop, Martin, Helèné Bray (UN Cartographic Unit) and I belly-buttoned representatives from the Boundaries Division of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on their border with North Korea. They confirmed two things we had been seeing on maps from both countries: 1) an overlapping boundary in the Yalu and Tumen rivers (sovereignty extending to the opposite shoreline, with fluvial islands retaining one-state sovereignty) based on a secret (read: not currently public) bilateral agreement, and 2) the boundary running north from a site near the source of the Yalu up Mount Paektu, across the crater lake, and down from the mountain and east to connect near the source of the Tumen. Commercial imagery (Google Earth) shows the latter clear-cut section very well.
The referemced IBS No. 17 is a vintage document (1962). The Department of State issued it to confirm that it was sticking with the status quo, namely the Republic of China depiction, which claimed the entire mountain. The IBS line was drawn from Japanese occupation maps of China and Korea that we acquired after the Second World War. At the time we had no bilateral evidence that the line had been changed by two entities with whom we had no diplomatic relations (Communist China and North Korea). South Koreans, on the other hand have claimed all of "sacred" Mount Paektu and were pressuring us to use their depiction. Today, we know that the two adjoining states have agreed to, mapped, and actually demarcated the Mount Paektu portion of the boundary. This is what we now show on U.S. Government maps. The 1713 monument is franky today a moot issue.
Hope this clarifies,
Ray
-----Original Message-----
From: International boundaries discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of aletheia kallos
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 7:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [INT-BOUNDARIES] Baekdu-san boundary
thanx for the delicious query tom
there does not appear to be any real substantiation available for the boundary in the lake that you are showing in your attachment
rather it is my semieducated guess that the longtime dispute detailed here by the ibs http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS017.pdf
& illustrated with a sketch map on the final page has continued more or less quietly up the present with the last known shots having been fired in 1997 yet without any further settlement so far as i could discern
so
an agreement to disagree perhaps
& not disrupt the considerable flow of tourism to the area
moreover the location of the defining 1713 monument purportedly near the summit point & upon the yalu & tumen watershed divide has not been publicly confirmed so far as i know & may not even have been recovered in modern times
but because the songhua watershed also converges upon the summit from the northeast & cannot be in korea at all because the delimitation is entirely between the yalu & tumen watersheds there appears to be a roughly 4360 meter gap between the mountain summit & the top of the tumen wastershed at the watershed trijunction point pretty much as shown in my satpic attachment
of course if the 1713 monument is ever recovered it may trump the actual watershed divide but failing that i would suggest running the boundary line not across the lake at all nor even thru the exact summit point as did the ibs but rather only along the actual yalu & tumen watershed divide & thus thru the watershed trijunction point i have approximately determined & shown
from this point you can see on the satpic the yalu system shedding southward & the tumen shedding east & southeast & the songhua northeast
at the same time i also have to report
there is a photo of a very modern looking marker that is said to be a boundary stone & is pinned at google earth near the midpoint of the aforementioned gap
but whether this really is what & where it claims to be i rather doubt tho i suppose it could be an unreported replacement for the 1713 rock among other possibilities
so circumspection regarding all the above may be warranted
but i hope it may help you anyway
as it was great fun searching
--- "Tom Edwards (Englobe)" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
>
>
> I'm looking for clarification on the China-North Korea boundary
> section around the mountain Baekdu-san and lake Chon-ji. The attached
> image shows what I understand the boundary to be - bisecting Chon-ji
> with the Baekdu-san peak on the Korean side of the boundary. Note that
> this disagrees with data sources such as the Digital Chart of the
> World (which is of course dated).
>
>
>
> I'm hoping to find confirmation that the boundary depicted in the
> attached image is in fact the true boundary as it currently is shown.
> Thanks in advance for any assistance.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> Tom Edwards
>
> Principal Consultant & Founder
>
> Englobe Inc.
>
> <http://www.englobe.com/> http://www.englobe.com
>
> T: 1.425.444.7370
>
> F: 1.425.663.7986
>
>
>
>
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