The forgotten island, Nokdundo Island.

 The forgotten island of Nokdun, descending from Russia's southernmost city bordering North Korea-China-Russia. When a strange Asian gets off at the station, border guards take him to the office to check his passport and ask for the purpose of his visit. When I answered "tourism", they tilted their heads. He looks like he has everything. "Tourists can't take pictures because there are military facilities either." A, who is in charge of interpreting, repeatedly warns. Just in time, you can see a train departing from Hasan Station and crossing the Tuman River Railway Bridge (Joe-Russia Friendship Bridge). It is said to be a train between North Korea and Russia twice a week.》 ● Mr. A is nervous when he reaches about 2km south of Hasan Station on Nokdundo Island, which stopped 67 years ago. "If you enter any more, you will be arrested by Russian border guards," he said, pointing to a lane entering Nokdundo Island. Sergey Kanji, deputy director of the Pacific Geographic Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, met during the coverage period, said, "It takes us a full two months to get permission to enter the estuary of the Tuman River." Nokdundo Island is home to lush reed forests in autumn and wetland plants in summer. In 1937, Koreans who lived here under the former Soviet Union's Stalin were chased to Central Asia, and this place became abandoned overnight. In Nokdundo Island, traces of Koreans still remain everywhere with resentment from the dead. Near the presumed site of Nokduntoseong Fortress, there are clear fields and houses where the owner was lost and Yeonjabanga are scattered everywhere. Fragments of brass pots in cauldrons are also noticeable. Nokdundo's clock still stopped 67 years ago. The first record of Nokdundo Island, which is about four times the size of ● Yeouido, can be found in Sejong Silokjiri. It comes out under the name of Sachamado Island. The name Nokdundo Island was obtained in 1445, the first year of King Sejo's reign, and most of the old maps made since then specify Nokdundo Island. The same applies to maps and records made by the Qing Dynasty and Japanese imperialism. The size of Nokdundo Island varies from map to map. Nokdundo Island of Agukyeojido, compiled in Joseon at the end of the 19th century, reaches 70 ri from north to south and 30 ri from east to west. The area is over 300 km가. On the other hand, the Joseon Gaehwasa Temple, published by the Japanese in 1901, introduces the area of Nokdundo Island as about 4km. However, Professor Lee Ki-seok of Seoul National University, who led the research team and toured Nokdundo Island five times, estimated the area of Nokdundo Island to be about 32km. Nokdundo Island, where the traces of Chungmugong ● stood, was incorporated into our territory during King Sejong's pioneering of the 6th camp in the early Joseon Dynasty. King Sejo sometimes gives a spirit to the border guards to defend themselves strictly for fear of the looting of the aftershocks. The tension relationship with the aftershocks turns into a 'Nokdundo incident'. In 1587, five years before the outbreak of the Imjin War, a large number of aftershocks invaded. Eleven Joseon soldiers were killed and 160 people were kidnapped, and Admiral Yi Sun-shin was deprived of his post. Joseon launched a counterattack the following year. Yi Sun-shin is pardoned for leading the victory by the white army in this battle. Nokdundo Island disappeared from history until the late 19th century. This period coincides with the time when the Qing Dynasty and Joseon paid the border area as an uninhabited land. However, Roh Gye-hyun, a former professor at Korea Communications University, explained, "It is clear that Nokdundo Island was the territory of Joseon even at that time."    Nokdundo Island was the living base for Koreans from the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty until Stalin's forced migration in 1937. Now, traces of Koreans' lives such as Yeonja millstones and house sites are found throughout the estimated Nokdundo Island on land. Russia has designated the mouth of the Tuman River around the old Nokdundo Island as a military area and controls the access of the general public.-Photo courtesy of the Tuman River Land Use Research Team ● The problem of becoming an "island not an island" due to terrain changes is that the water stream in the north of Nokdundo Island gradually became thinner due to frequent flooding of the Tuman River, leading to Nokdundo Island and coastal waters. The change in the water level of the East Sea was also a factor in the change of the Tumen precipitation. On a map made in 1709 under the direction of Kang Hee-je of the Qing Dynasty, Nokdundo Island and Yeonha Temple were already attached. So is Nokdundo Island in Gyeongheung-eup, which seems to have been produced during King Gojong's reign. Therefore, it is not easy to specify the location of Nokdundo Island in the 15th century. However, the recently discovered Nokdun Saturn site is an important clue. The 6-7m high and 4km long soil is about 4km away from Josan Mountain in Hamgyeong-do. As a result, it is possible to estimate the location of the Tuman River tributary (also known as Nokdungang River), which would have divided Nokdun Island and the coastal waters. Professor Lee Ki-seok said, "We have confirmed the large enough land to install Dunjeon at the Nokdundo Island estimation site." Although it was attached to Maritime Province due to the change in the topography of the recognition of the ● 원 Wonsegae Treaty of Russia, Nokdundo Island was still the land of Joseon. However, as Russia pressured the Qing Dynasty and signed the Beijing Treaty in 1860, the fate of Nokdundo Island changed. Russia secretly incorporated Nokdundo Island into its territory. Joseon's response, which was dark in the international situation at the time, was minimal. Yang Tae-jin, head of the East Asian Territory Research Institute, pointed out, "Joseon did not know for sure the meaning of Russia and the Qing Dynasty setting up a border milestone at the mouth of the Tuman River." Joseon belatedly proposed a joint plan of three countries to the Qing Dynasty and Russia in 1885, but it was not accepted. Joseon was forced to be helpless due to Russia's ambition and Qing Dynasty's insincerity. "The geographical inadequacy of Cheongguk management made an unreasonable medicine book, causing sighs in Joseon." This word of the construction of the Qing Dynasty in Wonsegae shows the tragedy of Joseon well. ● Still, Nokdundo Island was definitely the land of the Joseon people even after the signing of the Beijing Treaty on Nokdundo Island was definitely the land of the Joseon people. In 1883, Eoyunjung, a northwestern governor, reported to the court, "All the people living in Nokdundo Island are Joseon people, and there is no one from other countries." Gojong also dispatched Kim Kwang-hoon and Shin Sun-wook to secret forces to grasp the current status of Nokdundo Island. They engraved a map of Agukyeojido Island stating that 113 households and 822 Joseon people live in Nokdundo Island. In the 20th century, Nokdundo Island was the base of Koreans who lost their country. The diary left by independence activist Shin Pil-su while staying in Nok-dong, the old Nokdundo Island, in 1921 states that there are 40 Korean villages. "Until the 1930s, more than 70,000 Koreans lived in Maritime Province, including Nokdundo Island," said Serge Kanji, deputy director of the country. ● The Japanese diplomatic document of the "Nokdundo Tragedy" reaffirmed by North Korea records that the Joseon government constantly demanded the return of Nokdundo Island. In this regard, Director Yang Tae-jin argues, "Since Joseon did not accept the border definition between Russia and the Qing Dynasty, it should be considered that there is no official border between Korea and Russia." Nevertheless, North Korea signed a border treaty with the former Soviet Union in 1990. It inherited the Beijing Treaty as it was. In other words, North Korea officially acknowledged that Nokdundo Island is Russia's territory.