1. Cho Sei-young, Director-General for Northeast Asian Affairs, summoned Tagashi Kurai, Minister at the Japanese Embassy in the Republic of Korea, to the Foreign Ministry on March 27, and delivered a note verbale from the ROK government, conveying the strong protest against the approval by the Japanese government of a high school textbook that is based on a distorted historical view and contains Japan’s territorial claims to Dokdo, which is clearly Korean territory.

2. Director-General Cho pointed out that the authorized textbook could indoctrinate the future leaders of Japan with wrongful historical perceptions, which, in turn, could entail undesirable consequences in further developing the ROK-Japan relations as well as for the future of Japan. Furthermore, he expressed deep concern over the the latest move by the Japanese government, which makes the ROK doubt its willingness to act on its numerously reiterated pledge to “build a future-oriented ROK-Japan partnership while squarely facing up to history.”

3. The Director-General stressed that the approval of the textbook will undermine bilateral relations by glorifying Japan’s past wrongdoings and that the move is an  intolerable attempt to undermine the ROK’s sovereignty over Dokdo, which is clearly ROK territory in terms of history, geography and international law, and demanded an immediate rectification.

4. Minister Kurai responded that he would accurately deliver the position of the ROK government to his government.

            Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFAT

* unofficial translation