Ким Вонсу (Kim Wonsoo),

Cеульский Национальный педагогический университет

The rivalry over the Korean peninsula, and the so-called ‘Korean problem’ were in reality as much the tinderboxes from which the Russo-Japanese War ignited as the rivalry over Manchuria. Korean problem has originated with the Seoul-Ŭiju (Kyŏngŭi) Railway and the Yalu timber concessions. And it eventually led to the Russo- Japanese rivalry around the Yongampo Incident happened in the Korean bank of the Yalu River between February, 1903 and February, 1904.