SOUTH KOREA: South Koreans protest Japan’s new textbooks that claim disputed islets

Record ID: 464901

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: South Koreans protest Japan’s new textbooks that claim disputed islets
  • Date: 1st April 2011
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (MARCH 31, 2011) (AGENCY POOL) VIEW OF ANTI-JAPANESE PROTEST PROTESTERS CHANTING VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SLASHING JAPANESE NATIONAL FLAGS POLICE AND PROTESTERS SCUFFLING WITH EACH OTHER (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PROTEST LEADER CHOO SEON-HEE SAYING: "All the people in the world know Dokdo is our territory. But the Japanese teach distorted history to the students. They are wrong. Shame on the Japanese! They should reflect on their conduct." VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING SLOGANS
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7T2NEHC6NE9UJ4F0RXG2EC1CL
  • Story Text: South Koreans protested on Thursday (march 31) over Japan's new school textbooks that lay claim to disputed islets known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea which also claims the territory.
    The protesters chanted slogans such as 'Apologise' and 'Down with Japanese leaders' after the Japanese government on Wednesday (March 30) approved new middle school textbooks claiming the islets as Japanese territory.
    About 100 elderly protesters gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and destroyed Japanese flags but police stopped them from burning the flags.
    "All the people in the world know Dokdo is our territory. But the Japanesse teach distorted history to the students. They are wrong. Shame on the Japanese! They should reflect on their conducts," said a protest leader Choo Seon-hee.
    South Korea's government has made an official protest. Seoul's deputy foreign minister presided over an emergency meeting over the dispute.
    "Japan approved new middle school textbooks yesterday. We are here today to discuss how our government should cope with the situation," said Deputy Foreign Minister Min Dong-seok.
    Japan and South Korea both claim historical rights to the cluster of rocks which have little obvious economic value but are in the midst of fishing grounds and may sit above valuable deposits of natural gas hydrate. The textbooks in question are junior high textbooks for the next school year which starts on April 1.
    In Korea, bitter memories linger of Japan's 1910-45 colonisation of the peninsula.
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