뉴스레터

While the Northeast Project is often cited as an example of historical controversies between Korea and China, few people know as much that the Northeast Project is short for '東北邊疆歷史與現狀系列硏究工程' and this research project was completed in 2007. Furthermore, the term Northeast Project is being used widely beyond its original meaning, as can be seen in China's recent announcement of the 'total length of the All-Time Great Wall of China' being thought to be a follow-up project of the Northeast Project. This naturally leads us to these questions: "What is the Northeast Project? If it is completed, what are the ongoing historical controversies between Korea and China?"

Detailed and Easy-to-Understand Answer to What the Northeast Project is All About

Recently, the Northeast Asian History Foundation published Correct Understanding of the Controversies over the Histories of Korea and China, a booklet that offers detailed and easy-to-understand answers to these questions. This is an upgrade edition of the two booklets, Correct Understanding of the Northeast Project and its extended edition, published in 2007 and 2009, respectively, by the NAHF in an effort to publicize what the Northeast Project was all about.

I remember how both booklets proved to be quite useful references for those who wanted to find more about the Northeast Project because it was not long before we ran out of additional prints. The need to supply more of these booklets was raised. When it was discussed at the planning meeting attended by all the research fellows of the Research Department, the consensus was reached that the existing editions, instead of printing more of them, would require complete revision. That was because now that the Northeast Project was completed and what we call 'the post-Northeast Project' was underway, the descriptions in the existing editions, which were made to publicize 'what the Northeast Project was,' were outdated and limited for understanding the current developments. But it was decided to keep the format of the existing editions as intact as possible because the Northeast Project and its later developments were not separate events but running along the same basic lines. The contents, however, required extensive revision in some parts and completion revision in other parts to describe changes in the Northeast Project over the course of time.

Once the existing editions were reviewed to identify the parts that needed change, they were sorted into different fields of specialization and assigned to the right research fellows for writing and revision. Once the writing process was completed, their manuscripts were collected and reviewed at a meeting for heated discussion, where incorrect terms, errors in years or numbers, and even the appropriate level of expressions were pointed out and corrected accordingly.

The Northeast Project Is Over, but the 'Northeast Project-style' Historical Research Is Not

The point we tried to emphasize throughout this new booklet is the fact that while the Northeast Project is over, what we call 'Northeast Project-style' research and historical perception are not. If the project in the past was carried out by the central agency, the Center Of China's Borderland History and Geography Research under the CAAS, the same role has been taken on now by the CAAS branches, universities, and research centers in the three Northeastern provinces. In addition, there are also some signs of change in 'Northeast Project-style' research; instead of the trite logic used in the beginning, they take a diachronic approach to the whole region, encompassing 'Liao-he Civilization' and 'Mt. Changbaisan Culture,' or place emphasis on the lineage 'Xuxen-Yeru-Mogiye-Manchurian' instead of the people of Koguryo who were major players in the history of Manchuria. These changes imply that it has become impossible to understand the approaches and contents of China's current research without updating the existing understanding that the history of Koguryo was a great part of the Northeast Project in its early stage to the point that this research project was understood to be 'taking away the history of Koguryo from Korea.'

This new booklet presents the examples of China's controversial distortion of history by topic in an easy-to-understand fashion, following the format of the existing editions. As new additions, the 'Did You Know?' sections were inserted throughout to provide knowledge necessary to understand the contents. To cover the historical controversies between Korea and China spanning from ancient to contemporary periods, we selected and presented various topics, including the issues of the history of Gojoseon, the history of Buyeo, the history of Balhae, and Mount Baekdu. On each of these topics, we presented China's claims and Korea's views separately, so that the readers could compare the two claims and reason to themselves.

I hope that this new booklet will reach more people to help them avoid the rash judgment and misunderstanding that defending the history of Koguryo is the only way to prevent China from distorting history or that any and every historical controversy is about the Northeast Project.