The 1909 Jian Dao/Gando Convention was a treaty signed between Japan and China in which Japan received railroad concessions in Manchuria(Northeastern China). Japan claimed the southern part of Jilin province of Northeastern China was part of Korea, which was under Japanese colonial control at that time. Japan had made up this so called "Jian Dao/Gando" issue to expand its control in China and extract more concessions from the Qing Dynasty, which was on the verge of collapse. After the defeat of Japan in WWII, both Koreas (especially South Korea) have used "Jian Dao/Gaodo" issue to prop up Korean nationalism.

For years, the South Korean government purposely avoided making an official statement regarding the Gando Convention. However, in 2004, the South Korean government issued the following statement: "Our government takes the position that the 1909 Gando Convention, signed by Japan without concern for Korea's position, is null and void, to the extent that the Eulsa Treaty , which deprived Korea of its diplomatic rights in 1905, is a null-and-void treaty obtained through duress."

This immediately ignited controversy, as it implied that the region north of Mt. Baekdu and the Tumen River was Korean territory. The People's Republic of China, which currently controls that territory, in particular reacted very negatively.

On October 14 2004, South Korean foreign affairs minister Ban Ki-moon partially retracted the statement about the voiding of the Gando Convention [1]. This was in an attempt to ameliorate the diplomatic scrape caused by the original statement.