By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Singaporean government has promised to replace a picture of Korean beggars printed in its elementary school textbooks, a government official said Monday.
The picture, printed in a social studies textbook for Singapore's public elementary schools, shows several Korean homeless people sleeping under dirty blankets at a subway station entrance, with the caption ``Homeless people on the street'' next to it.
The image is accompanied by an explanation about the types of housing and the causes of homelessness, saying, ``In some countries, there is insufficient housing for everyone.''
``We received an answer from Singapore's Ministry of Education that it will substitute the picture with another one in the new textbook planned for print in November next year,'' South Korea's Embassy in Singapore said in a statement posted on ``Hankookchon,'' an Internet bulletin board for Koreans residing in the country.
The description next to the photo says, ``Even with limited land, our government is able to provide sufficient housing for the people.'' South Korean officials see that line as an insinuation that the South Korean government fails to do so.
South Korea's education ministry came under criticism after the photograph and the text were first reported by a Korean in Singapore on the Web site late last month. The ministry had pledged to have them withdrawn as soon as possible.
``We heard it from the Korean Embassy in Singapore,'' a ministry official was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying. ``Singapore said that it will use a different photo in a textbook that will be printed next year.''
The official said that Singapore will not use a Korean picture again as the textbook explains the types of housing in the world in general terms.