copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (1998-07-20): Yalu River, river of northeastern Asia that forms the northwestern boundary between North Korea and the Northeast region (Manchuria) of China. The Chinese provinces of Jilin and Liaoning are bordered by the river. Its length is estimated to be about 500 miles (800 km), and it drains an area of some 12,260 square miles (31,750 square km). From a mountainous source in the Changbai Mountains, the river flows southwestward to drain into Korea Bay (an embayment of the Yellow Sea). The river is an important source of hydroelectric power, is used for transportation (especially of lumber from the rich forests on its banks), and provides fish for the riverine populations. In addition to serving as a political boundary, the Yalu River constitutes a dividing line between Chinese and Korean cultures. It is generally known abroad by its Chinese name, Yalu, instead of by its Korean name, Amnok. According to ancient writing, the Chinese name, which is derived from the characters ya ("duck") and lu ("greenish blue"), is a comparison of the blueness of the river’s waters to the greenish blue of a particular species of domestic duck that inhabits it. The Yalu did not become a political boundary until the Korean-Chinese border was established toward the end of the Korean Koryŏ dynasty in the 14th century. The river played an important political role in the Korean War (1950–53).
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-03-09): Washington was uncertain about how to follow up Seoul’s liberation but MacArthur was determined to march north to the Yalu River and the Chinese border. Mao, for his part, decided in early October to send his army south across the Yalu River and fight MacArthur’s forces. [...] On October 15, 1950, MacArthur had meeting with President Truman on Wake Island in the mid-Pacific. The general told the president that the war would be over by Thanksgiving and most troops would be home by Christmas. When Truman asked, "What will be the attitude of Commie China?" MacArthur said it would not intervene. Even if China tried, it could not get more than 50,000 troops across the Yalu River, MacArthur promised, citing his G2’s intelligence estimate. In fact, by October 19, 260,000 CFF soldiers had already crossed into Korea. [...] MacArthur made one of his lightning quick trips to Korea from Tokyo on November 24, 1950, telling the U.S. ambassador in Seoul there were only 25,000 Chinese troops in Korea. Then he had his return flight to Tokyo fly along the Yalu River, making possible a personal reconnaissance intended to impress the media. His report to Washington dismissed the danger of Chinese intervention. Three days later Peng’s armies struck the American forces as they were driving to the Yalu River.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-05-26): The Yalu River is the longest river in North Korea, stretching 491 miles (790 kilometers). It begins on Paektu-san and flows southwest to the Yellow Sea. The Tumen River also begins on Paektu-san; it flows east into the Sea of Japan. [...] North Korea has nine national parks, the largest of which is Mount Kumgang National Park. But the DMZ between North and South Korea may be the peninsula's most important nature preserve. Since 1953, the DMZ has been considered neutral territory that no country owns; it’s patrolled by North Korea on one side and South Korea and the United States on the other, but few people are allowed inside. As a result, the DMZ is one of the most pristine nature preserves in Asia. The area is home to Asiatic black bears, red-crowned cranes, and long-tailed gorals (a species of wild goat). Overall, the DMZ is estimated to be home to some 70 species of mammals, more than 300 birds, and about 3,000 plants.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-11-09): "Since the land north of the Yalu was recognized as Qing territory," he argued, "it was fair to regard the land north of the Tumen as Korean territory" (Shinoda Reference Jisaku1999, 486). [...] Based on one document in this book (discussed below), Shinoda determined that Korean territory extended to the north of the Tumen and Yalu rivers and that a vast area of southern Manchuria was a "no man's land": [...] The current Sino-Korean boundary—that formed by the Yalu and Tumen rivers—is arguably one of the oldest state borders in the world that is still effective. The western section of the boundary, following the course of the Yalu (K. Amnok) River, was formed in the late fourteenth century, while the eastern part, following that of the Tumen River, dates to the fifteenth century. While the lands to the south of these two rivers were governed by the Chosŏn dynasty of Korea (1392–1897) for more than four hundred years,Footnote 9 the same period witnessed a significant change in governance with respect to the lands on the north. Before the mid-seventeenth century, the Jurchen people had inhabited these lands under the nominal rule (jimi) of Ming dynasty China (1368–1644) for generations. After succeeding in unifying the Jurchen population, Nurhaci, the leader of the Jianzhou tribe, established the "Later Jin" regime (1616–36), leading a rebellion against the Ming. His son, Hong Taiji, renamed the Jurchen "Manchu" and the regime "the Great Qing" (1636–1912) in 1636.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-01): On July 29, 1950, Nam Je-pyeong received intelligence that North Korean forces were planning to cross the Amnok Bridge in Gokseong on their way from Hadong, [...] In retaliation for their losses at the Amnok Battle, the North Korean forces surrounded and attacked the police headquarters at Taeansa Temple on August 6.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): North Korea,[c] officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK),[d] is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.[e] The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city. [...] The coastal plains are wide in the west and discontinuous in the east. A great majority of the population lives in the plains and lowlands. According to a United Nations Environmental Programme report in 2003, forest covers over 70 percent of the country, mostly on steep slopes.[87] North Korea had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.02/10, ranking it 28th globally out of 172 countries.[88] The longest river is the Amnok (Yalu) River which flows for 790 kilometers (491 mi).[89] The country contains three terrestrial ecoregions: Central Korean deciduous forests, Changbai Mountains mixed forests, and Manchurian mixed forests.[90]
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2013-09-30): The Obama administration signaled early on that it would be ready to engage Pyongyang, but North Korea’s multiple missile tests—followed by a nuclear test in May 2009—compelled the United States to push for tougher sanctions at the UN Security Council. The North continued its belligerence throughout 2010, sinking a South Korean navy ship and revealing a new uranium enrichment facility and light-water reactor at Yongbyon. It also shelled the South Korean island Yeonpyeong. [...] North Korea: The regime seeks a nonaggression security pledge from the United States, which deploys 28,500 troops in South Korea and maintains a heavy naval presence in the Pacific. Pyongyang also wants normalized relations with Washington and access to economic aid from other Six Party countries.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2003-10-03): With the cessation of Chinese attacks on 6 November, Walker and Almond began planning to resume the offensive. Elements of X Corps units even reached the Yalu River at Hyesanjin on 21 November and Singalp’ajin on the twenty-eighth. Although these were only minor "reconnaissance-in-force" elements, both Walker and Almond planned to follow through with major offensives of all their forces beginning on 24 and 27 November, respectively. [...] ———. South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June–November 1950). U.S. Army in Korea. Washington, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1961.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2000-06-23): On some of the world's harshest terrain, through the scorching heat of summer and the numbing cold of winter, American troops fought with steely determination and uncommon courage. As they gained ground, pushing the North Koreans back toward the 38th parallel, American families began to hope that our troops would be home by Christmas. But in November, at the Yalu River in North Korean territory, American forces encountered a new and daunting antagonist: Chinese forces had joined their North Korean allies, and the tide of battle turned once again.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2011-07-22): On November 14, 1950, First Lieutenant James Dill, B Battery, 31st Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, United States Army, ordered the evacuation of one of his men from a mountain village in North Korea due to severe frostbite. Only a week prior, Dill rode shotgun in the open cab of a three-quarter ton truck through the mountains of hostile North Korean territory. As he looked back over the winding gravel and dirt road, he saw his entire artillery battery strung down the mountain, fighting the frigid, biting cold. Dill and his men were the spearhead of American troops moving rapidly toward the Yalu River and anticipated victory over the North Korean army. Unfortunately, winter came early in 1950, and the Americans found the cold to be just as deadly an enemy as the North Koreans fleeing before them. [...] The subsequent winters during the Korean War were milder than the final months of 1950, and by the stalemate, American Soldiers were properly outfitted with winter gear during the cold months. Of the Soldiers that survived the march to the Yalu River in North Korea, however, none will forget fighting the piercing, bitter cold.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2004-03-01): The Yalu and Tumen Rivers, and control of the seas 15Since 1949, China and North Korea have accepted that the course of the Yalu and Tumen rivers constitute the border between the two countries. However, they have refused to situate the demarcation line in the middle of the rivers, adopting the principle of joint ownership, management and use of the two waterways. 16Historically, the main problem has been over the dozens of islands that are to be found in the rivers. China has recognised North Korea’s sovereignty over 80% of these islands, including the biggest ones. Ownership of the islands has been determined by the nationality of their population, but the problem has not been resolved at all for the uninhabited islands, a sort of shared responsibility seeming to apply in their case. Pidan (Chouduandao in Chinese), located at the mouth of the Yalu, was, however, an exception. The island was originally inhabited by mainly Chinese, and while North Korea had control over it, Peking officially regarded it as an integral part of its own territory. The North Koreans then wished to make a gift of it to China in gratitude for its help in 1950-53. In the event, this did not happen, and, in 1963, the Chinese authorities had to evacuate the approximately fifty families who were still living there12.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-09): Today, according to North Korean textbooks and monographs, the first and the only center of Old Chosŏn was located in Pyongyang and its surroundings; in its initial stage, the borders of Old Chosŏn extended from the Yalu River in the North to the Han River in the South; and during the period of its greatest power, Old Chosŏn’s territory included the Korean Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula, as well as part of southern Manchuria. [...] Sovereignty and Territory in Qing-Chosŏn Investiture Practices / King Kwong Wong, PhD Student, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia [...] Cyber Sovereignty and Cyber Territory in North Korea / Abhishek Sharma, PhD Student, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-07-24): The following month saw U.N. forces crossing the 38th parallel into North Korea, capturing Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and advancing to the Yalu River, the northern boundary of North Korea and China. In late October 1950, Chinese forces crossed into North Korea to aid their ally. By January 1951, Chinese and North Korean forces recaptured Seoul. [...] No peace treaty was ever signed between North and South Korea and in the decades since the Korean War, North Korean forces have conducted numerous cross-border incursions and other acts of aggression.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-02-03): From Dandong, the largest Chinese city on the border with North Korea, it’s just a short hop to the Hermit Kingdom – or rather, a short swim. In summer, bronzed Chinese bathers wade into the Yalu River and paddle 400 metres to the opposite bank, where armed North Korean soldiers watch from turquoise guard towers over women washing clothes along the muddy bank. The North Koreans don’t dare swim. [...] But it is also the main umbilical cord for North Korea. From Dandong’s main thoroughfare, you can see across the river to dilapidated two-storey houses; at night, the North Korean city of Sinuiju (population 250,000) is in complete darkness. At least 70% of all trade in and out of this isolated country happens between these twin cities, and upwards of 20,000 North Koreans work in Dandong. Many shopfronts are in both Chinese and Korean. Until recently, China was betting heavily that economic incentives could persuade North Korea’s recalcitrant leaders to behave in line with international norms – and Dandong was one of their carrots. China poured billions into the city to encourage trade: at least £3bn in an area called the New District, featuring gleaming apartments and malls; two special economic zones, both on river islands; and £250m into a new bridge spanning the Yalu River.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of North Korea (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-05-11): Initially, this new strategy was a success. The Inch’on Landing, an amphibious assault at Inch’on, pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. But as American troops crossed the boundary and headed north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, the Chinese started to worry about protecting themselves from what they called "armed aggression against Chinese territory." Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) sent troops to North Korea and warned the United States to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war. [...] Finally, after more than two years of negotiations, the adversaries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953. The agreement allowed the POWs to stay where they liked; drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide "demilitarized zone" that still exists today.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-10-17): The Yalu River is a river on the border between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It bore witness to the fierce Korean War 70 years ago. Follow Xinhua journalist to Dandong, China to explore the border river.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2013-05-07): When my friends and I arrived in Dandong, the largest border city in China, our first destination was duanqiao: The Broken Bridge. The bridge, which connects Dandong and Sinujiu, North Korea over the Yalu River, is a relic of the Korean War. Bombed by American aircraft, it serves as a reminder—or proof—of "American aggression," and, according to the propaganda poster by the bridge, is a symbol of the "greatest achievement of [Chinese] voluntary army…to aid [North] Korea." [...] After a while we left the bridge and headed to Hushan (Tiger Mountain), the eastern-most known section of the Great Wall of China. As we climbed up the steps, fighting against the piercingly cold wind, a panorama view of Dandong, the Yalu River, and Sinujiu spread before our eyes: Hills lush with red and yellow foliage on the Chinese side and, just across the river, barren, hay-coloured farmland. Even the few grey clouds that hung over Dandong were crawling toward the other side; as the Chinese land emerged under the sunlight, shadows shrouded North Korea. [...] But this country—where the government imprisons ordinary citizens at re-education labour camps for "online speech crime," where officials drive around in BMWs while elementary school children, seeking warmth, crawl into a dumpster, light some matches, and as a result, die of carbon monoxide poisoning—is, for those on the other side of the Yalu River, a land of hope, prosperity, light, and freedom.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-11-04): The Yalu River region at the border of China and North Korea is a traditional tourist attraction, but business lately hasn't been booming. A team of Reuters photojournalists explored the area. [...] A tourist attraction in the Chinese border city of Dandong is the old bridge over the Yalu, which was damaged by US bombs during the Korean War. On the North Korean side the remains were demolished, but on the Chinese side, the bridge was preserved as a memorial. A few meters away is the so-called "Sino-Korean friendship bridge," over which goods are transported between the two countries. The preserved Chinese section of the Yalu Bridge is open for tourists. In 2015, a new bridge called the "New Yalu Bridge" was completed. The 350-million-dollar project was completely financed by China and completed in only three years. There is only one problem - there is no traffic going over the bridge as the North Korean side ends abruptly in farmland without any connection to roads.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-12-03): North Toward the Yalu River [...] Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai of China had warned the general more than once that if UN troops approached the Yalu River, the Chinese would enter the war. MacArthur ignored Enlai’s warnings. The general simply did not believe that China would ever get involved. [...] On November 24, MacArthur launched a massive offensive toward the Chinese border. Almost on cue, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops stormed across the Yalu River from the north, sending US and UN troops into frantic retreat. The scope of the invasion was breathtaking. Julius Becton Jr. recalled:
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): In October 1950, Chinese troops under the name of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (CPV) crossed the Yalu River to assist North Korean armies, and engaged in the Korean War in an offensive manner after the U.S. troops crossed the 38th parallel. One central question immediately arises with regard to the Chinese intervention: Why did the newly established People’s Republic of China (PRC) decide to send its troops to engage in a war which did not take place on its own territory? [...] As mentioned before, one constraint posed by U.S. military presence near the Yalu River is that it limited China’s ability to respond to domestic anti-Communist movements. Implicitly behind this campaign of countering anti-Communist elements was the CCP’s need to consolidate its regime which was established less than a year ago. More importantly, the CCP faced the difficult task of establishing its authority and credibility by creating extensive internal support from the population at large.20 Influenced by the traditional Chinese strategic culture of regarding crisis (weiji) as constituted by both danger (wei) and opportunity (ji), the outbreak of crisis in Korea was seen by the CCP as both a challenge and a rare opportunity for the CCP to achieve the above objectives.21
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-05-08): Liquid geography : the Yalu River and the boundaries of Empire in East Asia, 1894-1945 This dissertation examines imperial Japan's efforts to transform and control the Yalu River boundary between Korea and Manchuria (Northeast China) during the period 1894-1945. Following the Japanese colonization of Korea in 1910, the Yalu River, together with the neighboring Tumen River, formed the longest formal, non-maritime border of the Japanese Empire until its dissolution in 1945. Yet despite the Yalu's strategic significance in the imperialist politics of early twentieth-century Northeast Asia, its modern history has been surprisingly overlooked. I address this historiographical gap while making three key interventions in the larger scholarship on borders, climate history, and Japanese imperialism. First, by drawing on archival materials in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English, I argue that dynamic environments like the Yalu are more than mere backdrops to border histories, but co-agents of border creation and contestation alongside local human residents. A focus on what I call the liquid geography of the Yalu border shows how the transnational flow of people, goods, and the river itself exposed the limits of the colonial state even while providing the material underpinnings for further imperial expansion. Second, in analyzing the river as an agent of history, I propose a new, seasonal approach to history.
Claim: Yalu River is a territory of Republic of China (Yalu River, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-12-10): This paper uses disputes over islands in the early twentieth-century Yalu River to examine how river environments critically shape border conflicts. Processes of riparian erosion and sedimentation along this historical border between China and Korea, accelerated by upstream deforestation, helped transform submerged sandbanks into islands known as Hwangch’op’yŏng. After Japan’s occupation of Korea in 1905, these islands in the lower Yalu delta—and the valuable reeds that grew on their marshy surface—became an unlikely battleground between Chinese and Korean reed harvesters, Japanese "continental adventurers," and competing Japanese and Chinese empires. With the contemporary Sino-North Korean border still a geopolitical hotspot, it is imperative to understand the historical as well as ecological forces that shaped the contested geography of the Yalu River boundary. Such an understanding, this article argues, shows how both Japanese imperial violence and riparian sedimentation contributed to Hwangch’op’yŏng’s battleground status and its transformation, by the end of the twentieth century, into a Korean exclave on the Chinese bank of the Yalu River. [...] For a detailed discussion of implications of Narita’s 1906 survey of the lower Yalu, see O (2017).