Park, Moon spar over textbooks
President Park Geun-hye sits for talks with the leaders of the ruling and opposition partiesat Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. From left are ruling Saenuri Party floor leader Won Yoo-chul, Chairman Kim Moo-sung, Park, main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) Chairman Moon Jae-in and floor leader Lee Jong-kul. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye and main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) Chairman Moon Jae-in sparred over the government’s decision to monopolize publication of history textbooks, Thursday.
Park invited the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties to Cheong Wa Dae to brief them on the outcome of her recent trip to the United States and ask for bipartisan cooperation to revive the economy.
The participants were Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung and floor leader Won Yoo-chul, and NPAD Chairman Moon and floor leader Lee Jong-kul.
The nearly two-hour meeting took place following the announcement that the government will use state-authored textbooks for middle and high schools after 2017. In response, the NPAD and civic groups are protesting the plan, claiming the government is trying to glorify the dictatorship of former President Park Chung-hee, President Park’s father.
However, Park rejected the protests from the opposition.
“President Park expressed regret over the issue becoming political,” said senior presidential press secretary Kim Sung-woo in a briefing.
“She stressed the necessity of accurate and proud history textbooks to forge national cohesion.”
The government and the ruling party claim that the current textbooks contain numerous factual errors and offer mostly leftist perspectives of history.
In response, Moon said that it does not make sense for President Park to focus on history textbooks when she should be making concerted efforts to revive the sluggish economy.
“The people believe that the state-authored history textbooks are aimed at glorifying pro-Japanese activities and dictatorships in the past. In addition, they do not want standardized education,” he said.
“Please scrap the plan and concentrate your efforts on economic recovery.”
After the meeting, Moon said that Park’s perception of history lacked common sense.
“Park did not respond to our call to halt the reintroduction of state-authored history textbooks because she believes that current books offer defeatism and disapprove of the legitimacy of the nation. I do not know why she suggested the meeting,” he said in a briefing.
This was the first time since March that Park has met with Moon following a trilateral meeting that included the Saenuri chairman then.
At the same time, Park also called for the National Assembly to quickly ratify free trade deals ― especially with China ― during the meeting, saying delayed implementation would cost anticipated exports worth 4 billion won per day.
“President Park asked for the participants to cooperate on ratification by November,” the press secretary said.
Park also called for the NPAD’s cooperation on economy-related bills pending at the National Assembly ― for three years ― to create jobs for young people.
Despite the rare meeting between the presidential office and NPAD, it remains to be seen if it will help break the ongoing political deadlock because the two sides still remain far apart on the textbook issue.
On Tuesday, President Park suggested the meeting to the rival parties to brief them about her U.S. trip and ask for the NPAD’s cooperation on bills related to the economy; but the main opposition party counter-proposed a trilateral meeting involving Park and the two party leaders to intensively discuss the history textbooks.