President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that she will not tolerate textbooks that distort or embellish history, in a televised speech to the National Assembly.
Park acknowledged concerns of the opposition party and civic groups on the "correct" publication of history textbooks, following a government move to introduce state-authored books for secondary schools starting in 2017.
However, she said "The issue cannot and should not become a subject of political strife. It is the mission of our generation to normalize history education.”
Park added “The normalization of history education is for the children, our future leaders, to correctly perceive our history and to grow with pride as a citizen of Korea.”
“We will strive to integrate the current divided public opinion through correct history textbooks,” she said.