The South Korean government recalled its ambassador to Tokyo yesterday to protest against the Japanese government's approval of a controversial textbook which Seoul says distorts history.
"The textbook problem is a very important issue in relations between Korea and Japan," a spokesman for Seoul's Foreign Ministry said.
"We ordered the ambassador today to temporarily return to Seoul to discuss measures to cope with the situation."
Last week, Seoul expressed "deep regret" that the Japanese government had authorized the controversial textbook, which it says glosses over some of the more brutal aspects of Japan's 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula.
Japan's Education Ministry endorsed the draft of the textbook written by nationalist historians after some amendments, sparking strong protests from North and South Korea and other Asian countries.
The textbook is due to be used from April 2002.
Japan colonized Korea in 1910, forcing Koreans to use the Japanese language and to pledge loyalty to its emperor for the next 35 years.
A majority of the more than 100,000 women forced to provide sex for Japan's former Imperial Army were from Korea, and tens of thousands of Koreans were forced into slave labor in Japan during World War II.
The two nations will co-host the World Cup soccer finals in 2002.
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