The 1909 Gando Convention was a treaty signed between Japan and China in which Japan transferred the Gando region to China in return for railroad concessions in Manchuria. It is controversial because Gando is perceived by many to be a Korean region.

For years, the South Korean government purposely avoided making an official statement regarding the Gando Convention. However, in 2004, the South Korean government issued the following statement: "Our government takes the position that the 1909 Gando Convention, signed by Japan without concern for Korea's position, is null and void, to the extent that the Eulsa Treaty, which deprived Korea of its diplomatic rights in 1905, is a null-and-void treaty obtained through duress."

This immediately ignited controversy, as it implied that the region north of Mt. Baekdu and the Tumen River was Korean territory. The People's Republic of China, which currently controls that territory, in particular reacted very negatively.

On October 14 2004, South Korean foreign affairs minister Ban Ki-moon partially retracted the statement about the voiding of the Gando Convention [1] (http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200410/200410140031.html). This was in an attempt to ameliorate the diplomatic scrape caused by the original statement.