ABSTRACT
Koguryo [is] a kingdom of horseback warriors that vanished from the map thirteen centuries ago . . . Throughout its 705-year existence Koguryo, which ruled the largest territory ever controlled by a state sprung from the peninsula, was constantly at war with both China and peninsula-bound kingdoms until it fell under joint attack from the Tang dynasty in China and the rival Korean kingdom of Shilla in 668 . . . Koreans trace their roots to Koguryo; the name Korea stems from Koguryo . . . Two-thirds of Koguryo’s territory lies within contemporary China and Beijing wants to forestall any future Korean claim over its north-eastern territory, which is home to large ethnic Korean communities . . . Many South Koreans are already demanding that a unified Korea must reclaim a strip of land called Kando, near the Chinese border with North Korea, which they believe was illegally given to China by the Japanese colonial authorities in the early twentieth century . . . South Koreans suspect . . . [that] by accentuating its historical links with Koguryo China is preparing to make a territorial claim, or install a puppet regime in North Korea in case the regime there collapses . . . Recently news arrived that China was developing Mount Baekdu – or Mount Changbai in Chinese – as a tourist zone and possible candidate for the Winter Olympic Games in 2018. Koreans consider the mountain the sacred birthplace of their nation. For its part North Korea has kept quiet in the Koguryo dispute.
