FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2002
S Korean parliament attacks Japanese textbooks
AFP
SEOUL: The South Korean parliament on Friday demanded that Japan correct new school history books that lay claim to an island under Korean control.
The text books have reopened a deep-seated rivalry between the neighbours less than 50 days from the start of the World Cup finals, which they will jointly host.
The Korean National Assembly unanimously passed a four-point resolution denouncing the books on Friday. North Korea also condemned the new books.
National Assembly members were particularly angered because the Japanese books said the island of Tokdo, which is known as Takeshima in Japanese, comes under Japanese sovereignty.
"Tokdo is the territory of the Republic of Korea," the resolution said. It then urged Japan to rectify the textbooks, demanded action by the South Korean government and called on China and other nations to join the campaign.
North Korea also condemned the Japanese government for approving the textbooks, which it said contained Tokyo's claim to "an inalienable part of Korea's territory".
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said: "This is a crime unprecedented in history."
South Korea's Foreign Minister, Choi Sung-Hong, expressed regret over the books, which were approved by Japan on Monday, and vowed to keep pressing the Tokyo authorities to correct the alleged inaccuracies.
In 2001, Japan and South Korea clashed over Japanese high school books which many critics said glossed over Japan's wartime atrocities in Asia during World War II.
South Korea and Japan will jointly host the World Cup finals from May 31 until June 30. Fifa, football's world governing body, awarded the event to the neighbours in a move that was hoped would help bury the rivalry stemming from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea.
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