Kim Joins Outcry Over Textbook, Urging Japan to Make Revisions

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Kim Joins Outcry Over Textbook, Urging Japan to Make Revisions

President Kim Dae-jung broke several days of silence on the Japanese textbook issue Wednesday and urged that Japan rewrite the book that Seoul says whitewashes Japanese wartime crimes on the Korean Peninsula.

At a meeting with the Japanese heads of the Korea-Japan Economic Association and Japan's ambassador, Terusuke Terada, Mr. Kim said, "We hope that the issue would be resolved smoothly in the process of schools' selection of textbooks or a new revision process." The perception of history is a past issue, he added, but it "fundamentally decides the relations between the two countries."

The history textbook for middle school use, approved last Tuesday, has drawn protests from other Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, Taiwan and North Korea.

Mr. Kim, who worked to secure better relations with Japan after a visit there in 1998, had appeared to take cautious approach to the textbooks. But Blue House officials underlined Wednesday that his remarks "urged" Japan to rewrite the text.

Also on Wednesday, the government launched an inter-ministerial task force to come up with a comprehensive response to the matter. The task force will be headed by the vice education minister, Kim Sang-kwon, and will run "indefinitely" until the issue is completely resolved, officials said.

The Japanese government has said it will not bow to diplomatic pressure, and no revisions will be made.



by Kim Jin-kook

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