By Xinhua,
Seoul : South Korean Education Minister Kim Doh-yeon on Tuesday sent a letter to his Japanese counterpart to express his regret over Japan’s territorial claim to the disputed islets of Dokdo, which Japan calls Takeshima, in a guidebook for Japanese middle school.
Lee sternly protested Japan’s move in his letter to his Japanese counterpart Kisaburo Tokai, said Kim Dae-in, a spokesman for the Education Ministry.
The letter, which was delivered through the South Korean embassy in Japan, criticized Tokyo’s “distortion of the two countries’ shared history”, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
Japan’s Education Ministry announced on Monday its plan to define Dokdo as part of Japanese territory in a teacher’s guidebook to be used from 2012 despite Seoul’s repeated oppositions. The guidebook is expected to influence upcoming middle school textbooks to be published by Japan’s civilian publishers and also serve as a guideline for teachers.
Both South Korea and Japan claim sovereignty to the islets of Dokdo.
South Korea insists that the Dokdo islets, located some 89 km southeast to South Korea’s Uleung Island and 160 km northwest to Japan’s Oki Island, have been listed as its territory in history literature since the fifth century.
Japan claims the islets have been its territory since the 17th century, as written in literature.
South Korea has controlled the Dokdo islets since 1950s.