South Korea lodges protest with Japan over new textbooks' descriptions Favorite 

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday lodged a protest with Japan over descriptions in new Japanese elementary school textbooks, summoning a senior diplomat of its neighboring country. South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong called in Naoki Kumagai, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy, to express deep regret over Japan’s decision to authorize the use of textbooks that contained expressions about thorny issues related to territory and history, including its claims over a group of islets. Japanese textbooks must satisfy certain standards and pass a screening by the education ministry before being used in classrooms. Lim Soo-suk, the ministry’s spokesman, said the government strongly protests descriptions about the islets controlled by Seoul and claimed by Tokyo, calling them “unreasonable claims.” The islets are known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.(The government) clearly states any claims from Japan over Dokdo can never be accepted,” Lim said in a statement.The ministry also said that “expressions over wartime forced labor were trivialized” in the textbooks and urged Japan to sincerely reflect on its wartime history and past apologies.“Japan has to take more responsible actions especially in educating the future generations as their proper perception over history is the start of building constructive future-oriented relationships,” Lim said.