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Seoul-Tokyo Ties Expected to Sour Over Japanese Textbook Issue
Japan's approval of distorting- history textbooks is expected to further strain the ties between South Korea and Japan.
At an emergent call-in meeting with the Japanese ambassador to South Korea Wednesday afternoon, South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Han Seung-soo Wednesday said the textbook issue could negatively affect South Korean sentiments toward Japan and hinder the success of the 2002 World Cup soccer finals, of which the two nations are co-hosts.
The Japanese Education Ministry Tuesday announced that its textbook screening panel has approved eight textbooks after dropping or revising controversial content that infuriated its neighbors including South Korea and China.
However, the textbooks, which are set to be used at middle schools next year, carry no references to atrocities Japan committed and the sufferings of its neighboring countries before and during World War II.
They also deleted passages of "comfort women" - Asian women who were forced to be sex slaves for Japanese troops.
Some of the textbooks continue rationalizing and beautifying Japan's past wrongdoings based upon a self-centered interpretation of history, said the South Korean minister.
Han's remarks came one day after an official statement, in which South Korea expressed "deep regrets" and "grave concerns" and South Korean political parties and civic organizations appealed to the South Korean government take strong measures.
The textbook issue has become the most serious between the two nations since President Kim Dae-jung and then Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi agreed in Tokyo in 1998 to overcome the historic problems and establish a partnership oriented toward the 21st century.
The partnership agreement contains Japan's acknowledgment of its atrocities during its colonial rule of South Korea in 1910- 1945.
Since then, the South Korean-Japanese relations have progressed to a level that South Korea invited Japanese Emperor Akihito to visit Seoul and the two governments agreed to designate 2002 as " the year of exchange" in time for their co-hosting of the World Cup soccer finals.
Meanwhile, the South Korean administration has also been taking a step-by-step policy to lift a long-held ban on imports of Japanese cultural and arts programs.
Against this backdrop, in the past months, South Korea has repeatedly warned Japan not to ok the distorting history textbooks, saying it would hinder the two sides' efforts to forge a future- oriented partnership as the textbooks drew strong protest from South Korean politicians, scholars and citizens.
The latest development in relations between the two countries has put an additional burden on President Kim Dae-jung's foreign policy, which has already faced challenges in the wake of the Bush government's hard-line stance on Pyongyang.
Some observers said the South Korean government is planning to postpone the next-stage opening of local cultural markets to Japanese products.
They added the textbook issue could seriously damage the relationship between the two countries if the Japanese government fails to take measures to prevent the distortion of history.
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