The North Korea–Russia border, according to the official Russian definition, consists of of "terrestrial border" and 22.1 km (12

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s) of "maritime border". It is the shortest of the international

borders of Russia Russia, the largest country in the world, has international land borders with 14 sovereign states as well as 2 narrow maritime boundaries with the United States and Japan. There are also two breakaway states bordering Russia, namely Abkhazia an ...

Description

The terrestrial boundary between Russia and North Korea runs along the

thalweg In geography and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. Under international law, a thalweg is the middle of the primary navigable channel of a waterway that defines the bounda ...

of the

Tumen River The Tumen River, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River (), is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China, North Korea and Russia, rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan. The river has ...

and its

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

, while the maritime boundary separates the two countries'

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...

in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

.Северная Корея
(North Korea), at the Russia's border agency's (Rosgranitsa) official site The principal border treaty was signed on April 17, 1985.Информация о международных соглашениях
(Information on international agreements) A separate, trilateral treaty specifies the position of the

China–North Korea–Russia tripoint The China–North Korea–Russia tripoint is the tripoint where the China–Russia border and the North Korea–Russia border intersect. The tripoint is in the Tumen River about 500 meters upstream from Korea Russia Friendship Bridge and under 2 ...

.Соглашение между Правительством Российской Федерации, Правительством Китайской Народной Республики и Правительством Корейской Народно-Демократической Республики об определении линии разграничения пограничных водных пространств трех государств на реке Туманная
(Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation, the Government of the People's Republic of China, and the Government of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, determining the line of delimitation of the water spaces of the three states on the Tumen River) The North Korea–Russia and

China–North Korea border The China–North Korea border is the international border separating the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It runs for 1,352 km (840 mi) from the estuary of the Yalu River in the ...

s run along the middle of the Tumen River, while the

China–Russia border The Chinese–Russian border or the Sino-Russian border is the international border between China and Russia. After the final demarcation carried out in the early 2000s, it measures , and is the world's sixth-longest international border. The Ch ...

approaches the junction point overland from the north. Because the theoretical tripoint is in the middle of the river, where it would be impractical to install a border monument, the agreement provides instead that the three countries install border monuments on the riverbank, and that the position of the tripoint be determined with respect to those monuments. The administrative unit on the Russian side of the border is the

Khasansky District Khasansky District (russian: Хаса́нский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #161-KZ and municipalLaw #187-KZ district (raion), one of the twenty-two in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is located in the southwest of the krai, wedged between ...

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of the ...

; on the Korean side, it is the city of

Rason Rason (formerly Rajin-Sŏnbong; ) is a North Korean special city and ice-free port in the Sea of Japan in the North Pacific Ocean on the northeast tip of North Korea. It is in the Kwanbuk region and location of the Rason Special Economic Zon ...

. The main Russian border guard station in the area is Peschanaya.

History

The border between the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and the Korean Kingdom, then a tributary state of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, was established by the

Convention of Peking The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amon ...

in November 1860. Under the agreement, the Qing dynasty

ceded The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...

territories east of the

Ussuri River The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...

to the Russians. The original description of the border included the lower course of the Tumen River - the last 20 '' li'' (about ) - as its southernmost section, leaving the rest of the course of the river as a Korea-Russian boundary by default. A wooden pillar was then erected marking the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

, which was later replaced with a more permanent pillar in c. 1886. The existence of Korea as a separate country was not mentioned in the 1860 convention between Russia and China, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese influence in Korea waned and Japanese influence grew. The

Treaty of Shimonoseki The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...

in 1895 ended the tributary relationship with Korea, and the

Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, also known as the Eulsa Treaty, Eulsa Unwilling Treaty or Japan–Korea Protectorate Treaty, was made between the Empire of Japan and the Korean Empire in 1905. Negotiations were concluded on November 17, 19 ...

made Korea a protectorate of Japan. The

Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, was made by representatives of the Empire of Japan and the Korean Empire on 22 August 1910. In this treaty, Japan formally annexed Korea following the Jap ...

finalised Japan's annexation of Korea. Thus, the Tumen River became a border between the Russian Empire (later, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

) and the

Japanese Empire The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

; this continued until the end of

Japanese rule in Korea Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offici ...

in 1945. In 1985, the Soviet Union and North Korea signed an agreement establishing a border along the middle of the Tumen.Информация о международных соглашениях
("Information on international agreements") The former Noktundo Island, in size, was recognized by North Korea as part of Russia. This agreement was not accepted by

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, which continues to view Noktundo as Korean territory. In the second half of the 20th century, thousands of North Korean refugees and displaced people crossed the border. Their descendants now live throughout Russia and other

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

countries.

Border crossing

There is one crossing on the North Korea–Russia border: the Friendship Bridge over the Tumen River, southwest of the train station in Khasan, Russia. On the North Korean side, the border train station is at

Tumangang Tumangang-rodongjagu ( ko, 두만강로동자구) is a neighbourhood in Sonbong, Rason, North Korea, near the China–North Korea–Russia tripoint where the borders of the three countries converge. It is also the closest town in North Korea ...

. The crossing is railway-only, used by freight and passenger trains, but planks laid between the tracks make crossing of road vehicles possible by special arrangement. Passenger train service over the Friendship Bridge includes a Khasan–Tumangang shuttle, as well as a

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History 1945–195 ...

direct car on the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

–

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

route. The direct car travels from Moscow to

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk (russian: Уссури́йск) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about ...

with a Moscow–

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

train, to Khasan with an Ussuriysk–Khasan train, across the border with the Khasan–Tumangang shuttle train, and then to Pyongyang with a domestic Korean train. At total, this is the longest direct (one-seat ride) passenger rail service in the world. Normally, the crossing is used only by citizens of Russia and North Korea, and is not open to nationals of other countries. In 2008, however, two Western tourists managed to enter North Korea from Russia by taking a train over the Friendship Bridge.Entering North Korea at Tumangan
part of the series
The forbidden railway: Vienna - Pyongyang 윈 - 모스크바 - 두만강 - 평양. Our train trip via Russia to North Korea - using an officially closed to foreigners route inside the "Hermit Kingdom"
See other parts of the series for train route details etc. In 2019, a Western-run travel agency specializing in North Korea tourism announced a Moscow–Pyongyang train tour that would also use the Khasan–Tumangang border crossing. In April 2015, the deputy transport ministers of Russia and North Korea—Nikolai Asaul and Kwok Il-ryong, respectively—signed an agreement to develop a road connection between the two countries.North Korea, Russia sign road connection deal
, 2015-04-16

Riverbank protection

Because the North Korean side of the river is mountainous and the Russian side is lower, shore erosion may cause the Tumen River, which floods annually, to gradually change its course toward the Russian side. (A similar phenomenon is seen on the

, with the

Amur River The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...

). To prevent the loss of national territory, and to shield Khasan and the Peschanaya border guard station from flooding, Russian authorities carried out a riverbank protection project using rock fill from 2004 to 2008.

Incidents

On 16 October 2016, a Russian border guard killed a North Korean fisherman and injured eight others after opening fire on a fishing vessel in the Sea of Japan. The

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...

( FSB) claimed the vessel, trawler ''Dae Yong No. 10'', was encroaching in Russian waters in the

on Saturday. During a search of the vessel, the FSB guards found "illegally obtained aquatic bio-resources" on board, a statement said. The statement says the ship then attempted to flee while its crewmembers tried to wrest weapons from the Russian guards. A Russian coast guard ship fired at the trawler's propulsion system, disabling it, and on the North Korean crewmen, the statement said. On 17 September 2019, the FSB said a

Russian Coast Guard The Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB (russian: Береговая охрана Пограничной службы ФСБ России, Beregovaya okhrana Pogranichnoy sluzhby FSB Rossii), previously known as the Maritime Units of the ...

ship detected two North Korean vessels and 11 motorboats fishing illegally in Russian territorial waters. While one of the vessels was detained, the crew of the other opened fire, wounding four Russian servicemen before it was captured, along with the 11 motorboats, according to the FSB. A total of 161 North Koreans were detained, including some wounded in the confrontation, who were given medical assistance. Both North Korean vessels, their crews, and 11 motorboats were taken to the Russian port of

Nakhodka Nakhodka ( rus, Нахо́дка, p=nɐˈxotkə) is a port city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trudny Peninsula jutting into the Nakhodka Bay of the Sea of Japan, about east of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai. Po ...

, where they are expected to stay till the end of the investigation. On 18 September 2019, Russia summoned the top North Korean diplomat in the country over a skirmish between the coast guard and fishing vessels in the Sea of Japan. Russia's Foreign Ministry expressed "serious concern" over the incident to Jin Jong-hyeop, the interim ''

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

'' at the North Korean Embassy in Moscow. This is not the first time the countries have had run-ins in the region. North Korea has previously seized Russian boats. In July, it arrested a fishing crew.

Gallery

Txu-oclc-6614383-nk52-6.jpg, Map including the DPRK-USSR border (1954) Txu-oclc-6654394-nk-52-4th-ed.jpg, Map including the DPRK-USSR border from the

International Map of the World The International Map of the World or IMW (also called the Millionth Map of the World, after its scale of 1:1 000 000) was a project to create a complete map of the world according to internationally agreed standards. It was first proposed by th ...

(1967) Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 f-9c.jpg, Map including the North Korea–Russia border

References

External links

The Tumen River Documentation Project
at Sino-NK * Frank Jacobs
Manchurian Trivia
February 21, 2012
Photo of borderInternational Boundary Study No. 59 – December 5, 1965 Korea – U.S.S.R. BoundaryBorder marker at 9:28
{{DEFAULTSORT:North Korea-Russia borders North Korea–Russia relations North Hamgyong Primorsky Krai Borders of North Korea Borders of Russia International borders