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C O N F I D E N T I A L        SHENYANG 00127

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    ACTION: POL
    INFO:   ECON RF

DISSEMINATION: POL /1
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: CG: SBWICKMAN
DRAFTED: POL: AJHANTMAN
CLEARED: CG: SBWICKMAN

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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000127 
 
SIPDIS 
 
MOSCOW PASS VLADIVOSTOK 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR, EAP/K AND EAP/CM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: July 9, 2032. 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR CH KN KS
 
SUBJECT: PRC-ROK KOGURYO SPARRING CONTINUES, QUIETLY, IN 
NORTHEAST CHINA 
 
REF: 2005 Shenyang 273 
 
(U) CLASSIFIED BY CONSUL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN.  REASONS: 
1.4(b)/(d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY:  Nearly two years after an August 2005 
agreement aimed at shelving their neuralgic political 
dispute over Koguryo--the kingdom that at various points 
between 37 BC and 668 AD subsumed parts of modern-day 
northeast China, North Korea and South Korea--PRC-ROK 
dueling over ancient history continues, often under the 
radar, in northeast China.  ROK diplomats evince 
considerable frustration with provincial authorities here, 
though they note some Chinese accommodation over the past 
two years.  Chinese scholars involved in official PRC 
Koguryo research--some of whom admit political pressure 
from the PRC government--note that Chinese research on 
Koguryo will continue indefinitely, one reason--among 
others--why an end to history-related sparring looks 
unlikely even as the fifteenth anniversary of PRC-ROK 
normalization draws near.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) History remains very much alive in Liaoning and 
Jilin provinces, home to a number of Koguryo historical 
sites--most importantly the former Koguryo capital of 
Ji'an, in Jilin Province (reftel)--that have fueled Sino- 
Korean history-related tensions for the past several years. 
Wary of Korean nationalism, Jilin authorities late last 
year, for instance, abruptly shuttered ROK-operated inns on 
Mt. Changbai (Baektu-san), the mythical birthplace of the 
Korean nation, situated on the present-day PRC-DPRK border. 
ROK diplomats based in northeast China continue to strongly 
protest Chinese Koguryo-related museum exhibits; textbooks 
they argue subsume Korean history into Chinese history; and 
tourist sites PRC provincial officials hope will stimulate 
local tourism.  Months after it was expected to conclude, 
the PRC's state-funded Northeast Project--an academic 
initiative tasked by Beijing with studying China's 
borderland history (including Koguryo)--continues its work, 
much to the dismay of Korean diplomats here, concerned by 
what they perceive to be an effort to expropriate Korean 
history. 
 
KOREAN HEARTBURN, MIXED CHINESE RESPONSES 
----------------------------------------- 
¶3. (C) Since 2005, the ROK's Shenyang Consulate has borne 
much of the brunt of what some have dubbed the Sino-Korean 
"history war."  As a result, the consulate has an officer 
dedicated principally to following the Koguryo issue--along 
with an economics portfolio.  According to the incumbent 
officer, KIM Ji Hee (protect) and her predecessor JUNG 
Young Soo (protect), Liaoning and Jilin officials over the 
past two years have responded entirely differently to ROK 
concerns, although both are working under the same 
guidelines from Beijing.  Liaoning, home to fewer and more 
minor Koguryo sites having less tourist potential, has 
proven relatively helpful, according to Kim and Jung.  In 
response to vigorous ROK protests--usually done via 
diplomatic note and in diplomats' meetings with nearly all 
relevant official PRC interlocutors--Liaoning last year 
took down several monuments, removed or "corrected" a 
number of provocative museum exhibits and, in at least one 
case, closed an entire museum. 
 
¶4. (C) By contrast, Jilin (home to the majority of Koguryo 
sites, including Ji'an, the crown jewel of Koguryo tourism) 
has proven far more sensitive and prickly, according to Kim 
and Jung.  On the one hand, Jilin has quietly addressed 
some Korean concerns: late last year it suddenly closed the 
Ji'an Museum for "renovations" until the end of 2008 in 
order to tamp down on growing tensions.  But Jilin 
officials have largely proven intransigent, said Kim and 
Jung, and at times heavy-handed.  In retaliation for ROK 
remonstrations, for example, Kim told us Jilin officials 
actually closed Ji'an to foreigners for several weeks last 
year. 
 
¶5. (C) Over the longer term, ROK diplomats working the 
Koguryo issue sense that protesting Chinese museums and 
exhibits may be somewhat futile and, ultimately, less 
important than the textbook and territorial issues.  Even 
so, some feel the textbook issue may already be lost:  such 
was the lament of outgoing ROK CG Gabriel Oh (protect) in 
April, reflecting on several years of working the issue and 
the PRC's refusal to reinstate/amend Koguryo-related 
sections it controversially changed in 2004/05.  Looking 
ahead, Oh considered Mt. Changbai/Baekdu--an issue on which 
ROK and DPRK positions largely align--to be another major 
battle-line.  Oh told the CG that while the North and South 
do not explicitly coordinate the issue vis-`-vis China, 
they have an implicit understanding that Seoul will press 
China on Mt. Changbai--an undertaking too sensitive for the 
North--in exchange for Pyongyang's pressing Japan on 
Tokdo/Takeshima. 
 
NORTHEAST PROJECT SOLDIERING ON? 
-------------------------------- 
¶6. (C) Despite selective PRC accommodation on some ROK 
concerns, ROK diplomats argue that the PRC's ultimate tack 
seems to be to continue to fight the Koguryo battle, though 
discreetly and under the radar.  One vector continues to be 
the officially funded Northeast Project, which the ROK 
anticipated would conclude formally in February but has 
apparently been extended, according to Kim Ji Hee.  Former 
ROK CG Oh seemed to feel that the extension reflected a 
Chinese attempt to create the illusion that the door was 
still open on possible revisions to previous research in 
order to wear down Korean opposition.  Chinese 
participants, on the other hand, tell us that the project 
is effectively over, though they say it has yet to formally 
conclude, since a number of final publications are still 
forthcoming. 
 
¶7. (C) Like other of their fellow Northeast Project 
participants, Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences (LASS) 
researcher LU Chao (protect) and Yanbian University 
professor GAO Jingzhu (protect) privately admit they did 
not anticipate that the Northeast Project's Koguryo-focused 
work would prove as provocative as it did to the ROK.  But 
they strenuously reject ROK media allegations about the 
project's funding/staffing levels, arguing they have been 
far lower than claimed in the ROK press.  Gao Jingzhu said 
only a small subsection, mostly scholars in northeast 
China, of a roster of roughly 100 total participants 
devoted themselves to Koguryo.  In Liaoning, WANG Fushi 
(protect), a retired LASS scholar and another Northeast 
Project participant, grumbled to Poloff in March that over 
the past year LASS had actually required a number of 
retired scholars--himself included--to return to work on 
the project (inter alia) due to "changing international 
conditions."  Some privately acknowledge they have felt 
political pressure from the Chinese government.  But Wang 
wearily noted that "everyone"--PRC and ROK alike--is 
distorting history for political reasons. 
 
¶8. (C) Candid Chinese participants like Gao also note 
another reason for such distortions.  A number of 
northeastern scholars involved in the project, he said, now 
count on Koguryo research for their livelihood.  They thus 
have a certain incentive to exaggerate or overstate 
historical facts, or the importance thereof, Gao explained 
somewhat dismissively, chiding certain participants for 
poor scholarship, often based on flimsy historical 
evidence. 
 
¶9. (C) Wang, Gao, Lu and other participants told Poloff 
that Koguryo-related research will continue independently 
after the formal end of the Northeast Project.  Ironically, 
the ROK's Koguryo point-person in Shenyang, Kim Ji Hee, 
worries about the end of the project, for, she says, it may 
make tracking Chinese scholarly research on Koguryo more 
difficult. 
 
IN JI'AN: TOURISM GOALS, CHINESE NATIONALISM 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶10. (U) Situated in relatively poor borderland in Jilin and 
clearly pinning its hopes for modernization on Koguryo- 
related tourism, Ji'an is emblematic of yet another 
difficulty in conclusively ending Koguryo-related tensions. 
During a visit in early May, Poloff found the road from 
Tonghua to Ji'an lined with billboards and banners hailing 
the sites of the ancient Koguryo capital, the "pearl of the 
Yalu."  In Ji'an, as South Koreans and Chinese toured the 
city's Koguryo tombs and steles, a newly renovated downtown 
theater hosted the Ji'an City Koguryo Cultural Performance 
Art Company, whose performances showcasing Koguryo customs 
and culture cost a whopping RMB 80 (USD 10) per ticket. 
 
¶11. (U) Local residents and a number of Chinese tour guides 
at two of Ji'an's major attractions--now registered UNESCO 
World Heritage sites--noted that increasing numbers of 
South Koreans visit each year, particularly students on 
school trips.  But many, one guide told Poloff 
disapprovingly, come with the "mistaken" impression that 
Koguryo is part of Korean history, something she attributed 
to the strong "educational base" about Koguryo inculcated 
in Korean children from a young age.  A second guide 
conceded that "some" Koreans who come are more open-minded; 
as for the "others," she reminded Poloff, "everyone knows 
that history can't be changed." 
 
ACTION AND REACTION 
------------------- 
¶12. (C) Although central and provincial authorities--not to 
mention Chinese Koguryo scholars--appear to be acting 
somewhat more independently of each other than many have 
claimed, the net result seems to have given the PRC the 
upper hand on Koguryo since 2005.  The ROK has found itself 
in a reactive mode here, and Seoul's Shenyang-based 
diplomats lament that they at times feel hemmed in by the 
Korean media's often alarmist reporting on Koguryo-related 
developments in China.  Periodic concessions by local PRC 
authorities in response to ROK remonstrations have helped 
manage tensions over the past two years, but the planned 
continuation of often-politicized Chinese and Korean 
Koguryo research, as well as the willingness of local PRC 
authorities--especially in Ji'an--to use the issue for 
their own developmental reasons, is unlikely to spell an 
end to Sino-Korean sparring on the history issue as the 
fifteenth anniversary of PRC-ROK normalization draws near. 
 
WICKMAN