South Korea Calls For Japan's Immediate Withdrawal Of Its Claim To Dokdo In Education Guidelines

by SophiePadz / Apr 01, 2017 11:22 AM EDT

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South Korea strongly condemned Japan's renewed claim to Korea's easternmost islets which has been included in the latest education guidelines. Last Friday, Korea demanded Japan for their immediate withdrawal regarding their claim on Dokdo.

The Japanese government earlier decided that there is a need to approve already the revised guidelines which call for teaching students both in the elementary and middle schools that Dokdo actually belongs to them. Since the middle of February, the said guidelines have already been available online for viewing.

According to Korea Times, the guidelines which South Korea condemns also serve as the basis for writing the textbooks. Apart from this, this information will also be added and incorporated to the elementary school curriculum from 2020 and from 2021 to the middle school.

The government of South Korea strongly denounces the Japanese government from approving these educational guidelines which are intended and to be sued in the elementary and middle school social studies. According to the foreign ministry of South Korea, the guidelines include the unjustified claims of Japan to their inherent territory. With this, they demanded for its immediate withdrawal.

The foreign minister also added that the country is warning Japan to take into consideration that if it still continue to include inaccurate historical details after their claims to Dokdo in its authorized textbooks, the next generations will surely learn false history. He also plans to call in a Japanese embassy official to formalize an official protest.

Meanwhile, Dokdo is a set of rocky islets located closer to the Korean Peninsula in the East Sea. It has long been a source of tension between the countries surrounding it. It can be recalled that South Korea has provided a small police detachment on Dokdo which started when it liberated from Japan last 1945 as per The Diplomat.

The repeated claims of Japan to the said territory of South Korea are expected to worsen the diplomatic relations between the two countries. Aside from this Dokdo issue, these two countries have been at odds for months over the issue on a girl statue that represents Tokyo's wartime slavery of the women of Korea.