Exercise Scrapped Over Japan Texts

The Ministry of Defense put off indefinitely Tuesday the second joint Korea-Japan maritime exercise scheduled for early June to protest the controversial Japanese history textbooks.

"We believe that military exchanges between Korea and Japan should be pursued through mutual trust, and Korean people's support, based on correct view of history," the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry is also considering postponing a planned July visit by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Cho Yung-kil to Japan and other high-level military exchanges.

Joint navy drills, involving battleships and aircraft, were first conducted in August 1999 in seas off the southern island of Cheju. The defense ministries of the two countries had agreed to conduct such exercises every two years.