The Tumen River (, , ; <small> Korean pronunciation: [<nowiki/>tuman.gaŋ])</small>, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River, is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China (left shore), North Korea (right) and Russia (left), rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan. The river has a drainage basin of .
The river flows in northeast Asia, on the border between China and North Korea in its upper reaches, and between North Korea and Russia in its last before entering the Sea of Japan. The river forms much of the southern border of Jilin Province in Northeast China and the northern borders of North Korea's North Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces. Paektu Mountain on the Chinese-North Korean border is the source of the river, as well as of the Yalu River. The two rivers and the region of Paektu Mountain between their headwaters form the border between North Korea and China.
The name of the river comes from the Mongolian word tümen, meaning "ten thousand" or a myriad. In Tumen, Jilin, a riverfront promenade has restaurants where patrons can gaze across the river into North Korea.
Noktundo
Noktundo, a former island (now effectively a peninsula) at the mouth of the Tumen, has been a boundary contention between Russia and North Korea. The Qing dynasty ceded the island to Russia as part of the Primorsky Maritimes (East Tartary) in the 1860 Treaty of Peking.
Fishing
There are several popular species of fish endemic to Tumen river, such as Tumen lenok and bighead gudgeon. In 2016, China released 800,000 salmon seedlings into Tumen river in order to expand the regional fishing industry and meet the increasing demand for sea products.
Illegal crossings
The Tumen has been crossed for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the Chinese border. Most refugees from North Korea during the 1990s famine crossed it, and most recent refugees have also used it, as it is far easier than crossing the Amnok River. Defectors wishing to cross the Tumen often ignore its pollutants and dangerous border patrol, and spend weeks if not months or years waiting for the perfect opportunity to cross. "Long, desolate stretches of the Chinese-North Korean border are not patrolled at all", according to a New York Times article.
The history of conflict in the area (examples include incidents during the Battle of Lake Khasan) was alluded to in singer Kim Jeong-gu's song 'Tearful Tumen River (눈물 젖은 두만강)', which became an ode to families separated by such tragedies and by defections during the Korean War. The humanitarian crisis along the Tumen River was dramatized in the 2010 feature-length film Dooman River.
<gallery>
File:Tumen River Bridge.jpg|Bridge of Tumen River, built in 1941
File:Tumen River Bridge in 2018.jpg|Bridge of Tumen River, shot in 2018
File:Tumen River Winter.jpg|North Korea is on the other side of the Tumen River
File:Tumen River Winter2.jpg|View across the river from Tumen city in China to the town of Namyang in North Korea
</gallery>
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
- Nianshen Song. 2018. Making Borders in Modern East Asia: The Tumen River Demarcation, 1881–1919. Cambridge University Press.