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By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
South Korea expressed deep regret Tuesday over Japan's description of the Dokdo Islets as part of its territory again.
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan called in Ambassador to Korea Toshinori Shigeie to express deep regret over Tokyo's move and conveyed Seoul's unequivocal position that Japan must take immediate action to halt the changes.
The ministry also issued a statement to protest the Japanese action.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology approved five textbooks for elementary school students that asserted the islets in the East Sea belong to Japan.
The materials have either maps displaying a visually identifiable sea border around Dokdo or a statement that South Korea "illegally occupies" the islets.
Tokyo appears to be stepping up efforts to teach students to believe in its claim.
The education authorities there began examining the five social science textbooks in March last year - Japan scrutinizes elementary school textbooks every 10 years for revision.
Currently, one out of the five textbooks contains the phrase that Korea "illegally occupies" Dokdo since it belongs to Japan. Two others have maps that include the islets as part of Japanese territory with a dotted line to support Japan's claim.
The remaining two have no such indications or identifications.
From next year, however, all Japanese elementary school students will study social science textbooks asserting that Dokdo belongs to Japan.
In 2008, teaching manuals for Japan's middle school students included the phrase that a territorial dispute was taking place between Korea and Japan over the ownership of Dokdo.
Last December, Japan advised high school teachers to follow the guideline that was stated in the teaching manuals for middle school students, indicating its indirect claim to the islets.
Dokdo, located roughly halfway between Korea and Japan, was annexed by Japan along with the Korean Peninsula in 1910, but Tokyo claims that its territorial rights to the islets were declared five years before the start of Japanese colonial rule.
source:Korea Times
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