Korea strongly protests over Dokdo

South Korea expressed strong protest Wednesday after Japan authorized a dozen new school textbooks renewing territorial claims to the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo in a move sure to sour the warming relations between the two neighbors.

The approval represented a bolstering of Tokyo's claims over Dokdo because only 10 of the 23 textbooks currently in use in Japan have territorial descriptions of the islets. In particular, the number of textbooks claiming South Korea is "illegally occupying" Dokdo rose from one to four.

The controversial books were part of a total of 18 geography, history and citizenship textbooks newly licensed for use at middle schools across Japan from next year.

"Our government strongly protests Japan's authorization of the middle school textbooks ... and urges Japan to correct this immediately," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said.

"Dokdo is our territory where our country firmly exercises sovereignty and our people can travel freely. The position of our government is firm that we will respond sternly to any attempt by Japan to impair our sovereignty over Dokdo," he said.

Cho also expressed "deep disappointment and regret," saying newly authorized history textbooks "still justify and beautify wrong views of history." He also urged Japan to face up to history and carry out its pledge to move relations between the two countries forward in a future oriented manner.

Japanese school textbooks laying claims to Dokdo or glorifying the country's wartime past have long been considered a thorn in relations between the two countries as resentment over Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea still runs deep here.

The latest move, however, could be even more frustrating to South Koreans as it came at a time when they have been pouring out sympathy and support for the former colonial ruler suffering from a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.

But Cho stressed the humanitarian assistance is a different matter from the textbook issue.

"I think that the support and assistance flooding not only from the government, but also from all levels of society is a manifestation of pure and beautiful spirits of humanity," the spokesman said. "We hope that this textbook issue won't have any effect on this thinking and spirit."

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan was to call in Japanese Ambassador Masatoshi Muto to lodge protests. In Tokyo, South Korean Ambassador Kwon Chul-hyun planned to make a protest visit to Japan's foreign ministry, officials said.

But officials said they are not considering recalling the ambassador from Japan.

The government held an inter-agency meeting to discuss steps reinforcing South Korea's sovereignty over the islets. Measures under consideration include launching a project to repair the aged heliport at Dokdo.

The education ministry also sent a protest letter to Japan's education minister, expressing regret and demanding that the textbook authorization be scrapped, officials said.

South Korea considers Japan's sovereignty claims over the cluster of rocky outcroppings in the East Sea not as a territorial issue, but as a history matter related to the colonial rule as well as a sign that Tokyo has not fully repented for its militaristic past.

One of the factors for Tokyo's claims to Dokdo is a 1905 notice that a regional Japanese government issued to declare the islets as its territory. South Korea rejects the view as nonsense because the notice was issued when Korea was effectively a Japanese colony and it amounts to claiming that Korea is still its colony.

Korea regained independence in 1945, reclaiming sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula. Since shortly after the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea has stationed a small police detachment on Dokdo.

Wednesday's approval is expected to cool the relations between Seoul and Tokyo that have warmed significantly since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power in 2009 and took symbolic steps to heal the lingering scars of its colonial rule.

Last August, Prime Minister Naoto Kan offered a renewed apology for the colonial rule, promising to return centuries-old royal Korean books to Seoul and take other steps backing up the apology. It was considered the clearest apology that Tokyo has ever offered to Seoul.

Their ties improved further recently as South Koreans and their government set aside hard feelings about the colonial rule and provided full support for quake-stricken Japan in an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and support for the historical rival and former colonial ruler.

Despite the textbook row, South Korea went ahead with its plan to ship 500 tons of drinking water and instant rice to Japan on Wednesday in a third batch of relief supplies for the quake-stricken neighboring nation. (Yonhap)