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Textbook Issue Could Hinder World Cup Soccer Games: Minister
South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Han Seung-soo Wednesday said the Japanese textbook issue could negatively affect the South Korean public's sentiments toward Japan and hinder the success of the 2002 World Cup Soccer Games, which South Korea and Japan are co-hosts.
Han made the remarks when he called in Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Terusuke Terada at his office Wednesday afternoon.
During meeting the Japanese ambassador, Han expressed "deep disappointment" over the Japanese government's approval of eight new middle school textbooks, which whitewash or beautify Japan's wartime atrocities in South Korea and other Asian nations.
The South Korean minister urged the Japanese government to take honest and sincere measures against distortion of historical facts in revised textbooks as "some of them still include passages based on a self-centered interpretation of history, justifying or glorifying Japan's wartime atrocities."
In response, Terada said he will report the South Korean government's position to the Japanese government and voiced the hope that the issue can be wisely solved, and bilateral ties can continue to develop.
The Japanese ambassador stressed that the view of history revealed in the screened textbooks are not those of the Japanese government, saying the Japanese government continues to follow the recognition of history expressed in the Muramaya statement and in the joint Korea-Japan declaration on a new partnership in the 21st century announced during President Kim Dae-jung's state visit to Japan in 1998.
The meeting came one day after the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry issued a statement, condemning the approval of distorted-history textbooks.
Early Wednesday, the South Korean government held a closed-door emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures against Japan in response to the textbook issue.
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