S. Korean PM warns Japan over revised textbooks
South Korean Prime Minister Lee Wan-Koo has warned that Japan's revised textbooks for junior high schools distort history by laying claims to disputed islands.
Premier Lee made the remarks during a specially called press conference in the capital Seoul on Thursday.
The top South Korean official said Tokyo would face a "grim judgment" if it failed to address the realities of history.
"You can never cover up stark truth. (Japan) will eventually face a grim historical judgment," Lee said, adding, "(Japan) must stop distorting history."
Japan has dismissed objections over its newly-approved textbooks for junior high schools from neighboring South Korea and China.
All 18 new social studies' textbooks refer to the two separate island groups that are at the center of Japan’s disputes with China and South Korea as part of Japan’s territory.
Japan and South Korea are at odds over the sovereignty of a pair of islands, called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the Sea of Japan. Seoul, which controls the islands since the end of the Japanese colonial rule after World War II, considers Japan’s claims as stemming from its colonial past.
Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until its defeat in the Second World War in 1945.
The new books have also replaced the word “massacre” with “incident” when referring to the killing of a large number of Chinese civilians by the Japanese soldiers who invaded the then Chinese capital, Nanjing. China says 300,000 people were killed in the six weeks after the Japanese military entered the city on December 13, 1937.
JR/KA/SS
Seoul boosts military spending under US pressure
North Korean forces to gain ‘strategic assets’ amid heightened tensions in peninsula
US, South Korea to ‘move forward’ on nuclear-powered submarines plan
VIDEO | Germany considers Tunisia for migrant 'return center' plans
VIDEO | UK protesters show solidarity with Palestinians at Christmas
VIDEO | UK digital ID cards spark debate over immigration control, security
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
US advised to respect Iranian people, their elected establishment: FM
Trump admin. asks transportation body to share passenger names in expanded deportation push: Report
UN sounds alarm over record Palestinian displacement, surge in illegal settler attacks in West Bank
Iran emerges as global fertility hub, blending innovation, research and scientific excellence
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
