Opposition leader strongly condemns Japan over textbook row
Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly, March 29. Yonhap
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday strongly condemned Japan's approval of controversial school history textbooks, saying that Korea was betrayed by Tokyo because the approval came after Seoul's efforts to mend frayed ties.
Lee made the remarks a day after Tokyo announced the approval of new textbooks for elementary school students that appeared to water down its atrocities against Koreans during its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula and intensify its sovereignty claim over Korea's easternmost Dokdo islets.
The approval came after President Yoon Suk Yeol held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on March 16. The summit took place after Korea decided to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor on its own, without asking Japan for contributions.
The compensation plan has triggered a strong backlash at home because Japanese companies are excluded from making payments to the victims.
"I strongly condemn Japan's provocation," the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) chairman said, describing Tokyo's approval of textbooks as "provocation."
Lee criticized the Yoon administration for giving concessions to Japan but failing to gain anything through the compensation plan.
The DPK submitted a request to open a parliamentary investigation into the Yoon-Kishida summit and launch an 18-member special committee to oversee it. The request is set to be reported during a parliamentary plenary session Thursday. (Yonhap)