Ka Island

Ka Island (alternately, Ga Island) is a North Korean island in the Pansong Archipelago in West Korea Bay. It lies just south of the Cholsan Peninsula. It includes Ka Island Village (, ''Kado-ri'') and forms part of North Korea's Cholsan County.

Names

"Ka Island" or "Ka-to" is the official North Korean romanization of the island's name, using North Korea's official romanization system. Since 2000, its South Korean equivalent has been "Gado". or using its Revised Romanization system. In Chinese sources, the same name appears as Jiadao. The names all translate as "Pomelo Island".

In the 17th century, the Chinese knew Ka as " Hides Island", which appears in English accounts of the era as or Pidao.. It was also known as the DongjiangGarrison, from Mao Wenlong's settlement there.

History

Ming soldiers were stationed on the island during the reigns of the Joseon kings Gwanghae (.1608–1623) and Injo (.1623–1649).. Owing to the Later Jin invasion of Liaoning, the island flooded with both Ming troops and northern refugees..

The Ming general Mao Wenlong attacked from and retreated to Ka Island during the 1621 Battle of Fort Zhenjiang. He then used the island as a personal base of operations from 1622. Obliged to remain off the Korean mainland by Manchu pressure on the Joseon court, Mao justified his occupation of the island as an "area of strategic importance" (, ''èyào qū'') able to "defend Dengzhou and Laizhou southwards, stay in connection with Korea eastwards, and attack the Manchu northwards". By 1628, there were 26,000 troops who—together with their dependents—consumed 100,000 '' seom'' of rice.. Its supply was largely organized from the port of Dengzhou (now Penglai) on the north coast of China's Shandong Peninsula, but—partially owing to continued Korean gratitude for the Ming's help repelling Japan—this was supplemented by a Korean levy known as the "western provisions tax" (''sŏryang''). that ultimately contributed about 260,000'' seom'' of rice. Because of the irregularity of Chinese supply and the frequency of Korean famines, Mao also established farming colonies on the nearby mainland at Cholsan ("Tieshan"), Changsong ("Changcheng"), and Uiju ("Yizhou")..

After the fall of Lüshun to the Manchu, Mao was freed from most oversight and began to establish Ka as an independent maritime kingdom with open markets at Ka and Tieshan.. He attempted to negotiate an official free trade policy between China and Korea, ending their remaining sea bans and restrictions on exportation of goods considered strategically important, but also aimed to restrict Korea's direct tributary trade with China, instead driving its goods to his markets. He charged visiting merchants high taxes but protected all comers, including raiders. and smugglers, and so drew in much of the Yellow Sea trade between Manchuria, China, and Korea. Scholars estimate he was able to collect tens of thousands of silver tael