The 1909 Gando Convention () was a treaty signed between Imperial Japan and Qing China in which Japan recognized China's claims to Jiandao, called Gando in Korean, and Mount Paektu, and in return Japan received railroad concessions in Northeast China ("Manchuria"). After the Surrender of Japan, Gando Convention was de jure nullified. While China (then still divided between the Nationalist and Communist factions) took control of Manchuria and the northwestern half of Mt. Paektu, the Korean government (the present-day government of the DPRK or North Korea) north of the 38th Parallel took control of the southeastern half of Mt. Paektu in addition to taking control of the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th Parallel. Some Koreans maintain an irredentist claim on Gando for they regard the Gando Convention treaty null and void. Background Jiandao, or Gando in Korean, is today part of Northeastern China. Many different states and tribes succeeded one another in ruling the area during ancient times, including Korean states Buyeo, Goguryeo, and Balhae, followed later by the Khitans and the Jurchen Jin Dynasty. Traditionally, the area was inhabited by nomadic tribes from the north and west, as well as Koreans and Chinese fleeing unrest, famine, or other sociopolitical conditions in their home countries. Eventually, it and much of the rest of Manchuria came under the control of the Manchus and later the Qing Dynasty. Gando itself, as it shared a border with Korea, was a particularly high-frequency destination for Koreans fleeing worsening conditions in the late Joseon dynasty after the early 1800s. By the middle and the end of the 19th century, Koreans formed a majority of the population living in Gando, and when the Qing opened up Manchuria to Han Chinese migration in the 1870s and Gando in 1881, the large number of Korean already living there raised a boundary dispute issue that had been negotiated in 1712. An ambiguity in the characters used, was subject to some speculation, which was deftly used by the Koreans living in Gando to claim that they were still on Korean soil. While punishments for cross-border movement into northeast China by Han Chinese and Koreans by their respective governments (the Qing and Joseon) were on the books and Koreans apprehended in Gando were repatriated to Korea by Qing authorities, it is evident that these regulations did not deter people fleeing poor conditions, and they were able to make the claim