Post #5763

🇰🇷🇯🇵Seoul Protests Japan's Dokdo Claims in Textbooks South Korea's foreign ministry summoned Hirotaka Matsuo, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a formal complaint after Japan's Ministry of Education approved a new list of high school textbooks for use starting next year. Most of the approved publications describe Dokdo — referred to as Takeshima by Japan — as Japanese territory. The textbooks state that Dokdo was incorporated into Shimane Prefecture in 1905 and characterize South Korea's current control of the islets as illegal. South Korea's foreign ministry spokesperson Park Il called for immediate correction of what he described as distorted historical facts and baseless territorial claims. The ministry also expressed regret over textbook passages it said dilute the coercive nature of wartime forced labor and sexual slavery by the Japanese imperial army during World War II. South Korea maintains a small police detachment on Dokdo and exercises effective control over the islets. #SouthKorea#Japan @asianomics