Zhihua Shen and Yafeng Xia 3 rivers originate from Changbaishan (Ever-White Mountain in China,Paektusan or White Head Mountain in Korea).Tianchi (called Heavenly Lake in China,Chongji in Korea)atop Chang- baishan is also the source area of the Yalu and Tumen rivers.The boundary is clear below the middle reaches of the Yalu and Tumen because the rivers are wide and deep.But in the upper reaches,the boundary is not clear-cut due to shallow water and unidentified sources of the rivers.Disputes and border incidents have occurred frequently. According to textual research done by Chinese scholars,early Korean kings did not regard Changbaishan as the birthplace of their first ancestor.The Koreans called Changbaishan "mountain in foreign lands."In 1712 the Qing government established the boundary marker along the watershed line about five kilometers south of Tianchi on the Changbaishan,thus reaffirming that China and North Korea were bordered by the Yalu and Tumen(Suh 1988;Goma 2006).Since then,Tianchi,the sacred birthplace of the Qing Dynasty,has been under Chinese jurisdiction.Chang- baishan was defined as the mountain bordering China and Korea. From King Yeongjo(1727-1776)of the Choson Dynasty on,the Koreans have attached greater affection to Changbaishan and revered it as the sacred birthplace of Korean dynasties."Records of King Gojong"(1863-1907)called Changbaishan "our Paektu- san."After Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910,Changbaishan became a symbol for Koreans to cherish the memory of their ancestors and retain their national memory.Today,the DPRK claims that its former leader Kim Jong-il was born there,further complicating the Sino-Korean frontier issue (Yang and Sun 1993; Bianxiezu 1996). In the nineteenth century,China and Korea argued over the source of the Tumen River.While China maintained that the ori- gin of Tumen was the Hongdan River,the Koreans insisted that it was Hongtu Mountain,which is well to the north.To resolve the issue,China and Korea held two negotiations in 1885 and 1887 in order to demarcate the boundary.During the second negotiation, Qing China made an offer:China would give up the Hongdan River claim and accept the Shiyi River (Sogulsu in Korean), which is between the Hongdan River and Hongtu Mountain,as