evidence: In broad terms the Northern Territories encompass the southern section of Karafuto (Sakhalin) below latitude 50°N and its adjacent islands, the Kurile chain,[5]the Habomai Islands, and Shikotan Island. Japan and Russia for many years jointly controlled Karafuto, and the Treaty of Shimoda[6] in 1855 preserved this borderless arrangement in specifying that the island "remains unpartitioned." However, persistent conflict between Japanese and Russian inhabitants along with other issues led the two nations to sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg[7] in 1875 whereby Russia ceded the Kurile Islands from Uruppu Island northward to Japan in exchange for the entirety of Karafuto. Following the Russo-Japanese War, however, the two nations signed the Treaty of Portsmouth[8] in 1905 that ceded the southern section of Karafuto below the fiftieth parallel to Japan. In 1951, Japan renounced its claim to this portion of the island,which it called South Karafuto, under the San Francisco Peace Treaty.[9] [...] RSFSR's amendment drafting committee head Pyotr Bahmurov reported to government leaders that the amendment, following the Soviet army's liberation of southern Karafuto and the Kurile Islands, legally restores these areas as Russian territory in the Far East. He went on to say the act removes both southern Karafuto and the Kurile Islands from the Khabarovsk Region and incorporates these into Sakhalin Oblast.[36] The statement clearly shows that the Kurile Islands are considered part of Sakhalin Oblast, but whether the region also includes Etorofu and Kunashiri islands in the Kurile chain along with the Habomai Islands and Shikotan Island remains uncertain.