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South Korea fumes over Japan's latest claim to islets

South Korea demanded that Japan withdraw its latest claim to a group of Korean-held islets yesterday, accusing its former colonial ruler of distorting history and glorifying its imperialist past.

The Foreign Ministry statement came a day after the Japanese government said it had ordered schoolbook publishers to state clearly in their texts that the volcanic islets, called Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, belong to Japan.

"Our government demands that Japan immediately withdraw its claim to our native territory of Dokdo," Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said.

"We make clear once again that we will deal sternly with the Dokdo issue from the context of defending our territory," Cho said.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon summoned Japanese Ambassador Shotaro Oshima yesterday and lodged an official protest, the ministry said.

The rocky outcroppings, lying about halfway between the two countries, have been a source of dispute for decades between South Korea and Japan.

On Wednesday, Japan's Education Ministry approved about 306 draft textbooks for use in the middle of next year, but only after revisions had been made in areas including Japanese history, geography and international relations, the ministry said.

Several high school texts failed to clearly state Japan's claims to the Senkaku and Takeshima island groups disputed with South Korea and China, and were approved only after they were revised to say that they're an integral part of Japan, the ministry said.

The publisher of a geography textbook was told to modify a comment on the disputed Okinotorishima islets, 1,730km southwest of Tokyo, which suggested the islets would disappear at high tide without their extensive cement seawalls. The edited version says the seawalls are part of measures to prevent erosion.

"It's only natural that school textbooks be required to present views that are in line with the official government position," said Atsushi Inaba of the ministry's textbook approval section.

In other revisions, a textbook publisher was ordered to remove a reference to the Japanese imperial army in a section on "comfort women" -- women drafted into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II -- because Tokyo claims there is no historical evidence the army was directly involved in rounding up women.

Another book was ordered to qualify a statement on the number of Chinese killed by Japan's troops in the 1937 "Rape of Nanking."
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