[War and Management] Lessons from the Thailand?Cambodia Border Dispute

A Border Tragedy Sparked by a 1904 Mapping Error
How the North Korea-China Maritime Boundary Could Affect a Unified Korea

On the 25th (local time), a Thai military mobile unit was preparing to shell Cambodia near the Thailand-Cambodia border area. Photo by Reuters

Recently, due to a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia?two of the most popular summer tourist destinations?countless travelers around the world had to change their plans and avoid Southeast Asia. With 175 casualties and 260,000 refugees, both countries suffered severe damage to their tourism industries, which are pillars of their economies. Although a ceasefire agreement was reached four days after the fighting began, thanks to U.S. mediation, small-scale artillery exchanges in the border region have not yet stopped, and civilian casualties continue to occur.

The cause of this fierce conflict is, surprisingly, a mistake made by a French map surveyor in 1904. At that time, Thailand and France signed a border demarcation treaty, and the French side was responsible for mapping. However, an area that was originally agreed to be under Thai sovereignty was marked as Cambodian territory on the map. An even bigger problem was that the Thai government only discovered this error in 1934, thirty years later, and failed to negotiate properly with France. In the meantime, Cambodia gained independence in 1953.

The Cambodian government, after gaining independence from France, claimed that these areas historically belonged to the Khmer Empire, the predecessor of modern Cambodia, which further escalated the dispute. In 1962, even the International Court of Justice sided with Cambodia, but the Thai government refused to accept the decision, and the border conflict has continued. In both 2008 and 2011, the two countries engaged in several skirmishes, each asserting sovereignty over major disputed areas such as the Preah Vihear Temple.

Although this border dispute seems to have arisen from an absurd mistake, there are many regions in East Asia where border demarcation issues continue to cause conflict. A representative example is the Primorsky Krai region between China and Russia. In 1860, during the border demarcation, it was agreed that part of Primorsky Krai would remain with the Qing Dynasty of China. However, due to the Qing officials’ lack of proper observation and careless demarcation, China lost all access to the Sea of Japan.

North Korea also made a significant mistake during the 1962 Sino?North Korean Border Treaty. While focusing excessively on the land border with China, the maritime boundary was established in a simplistic manner. The maritime boundary between North Korea and China was set as the 124th meridian east, a straight line dropping from the mouth of the Yalu River, which resulted in a substantial portion of the Yellow Sea area being ceded to China. Currently, North Korea protests this and claims its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), but China does not accept this claim.

The issue of North Korea’s maritime boundary is not just someone else’s problem. South Korea is also engaged in an EEZ dispute with China over Ieodo in the South Sea, and every year, there are conflicts with Chinese fishing fleets in the Yellow Sea. Not only during the pre-modern era but even now, there has never been a clear maritime boundary treaty between South Korea and China, making it difficult to find a point of agreement.

If this situation continues and unification suddenly occurs, the maritime boundary established between China and North Korea through the Sino?North Korean Border Treaty could be extremely disadvantageous to South Korea. Even if unified Korea demands a new maritime boundary, China is highly likely to insist on succession of the treaty previously signed with North Korea. China might even unreasonably demand that the southern maritime boundary also follow the 124th meridian east.

Even if the case is brought to the International Court of Justice and won, border issues are ultimately decided by the logic of power. This is why we should not view the Thailand?Cambodia border dispute as someone else’s problem, but rather take it as a lesson.