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S Korea condemns Japan over approving distorted history textbook

    SEOUL, April 9 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Thursday condemned Japan on approving distorted history textbook that whitewashes its colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

    "The South Korean government strongly protests the Japanese government's approval of the history textbook based on its false historical perception, which justifies and beautifies past wrongdoings," said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young at a statement.

    "The South Korean government calls for the book to be fundamentally corrected," he said.

    "The South Korean government emphasizes once again that the distortion of history through textbooks should not be repeated, as an accurate perception of shared history forms the basis for a future-oriented partnership between South Korea and Japan," the spokesman stressed.

    Moon said the Foreign Ministry will call Reiichiro Takahashi, senior minister at Japan's embassy in Seoul, to deliver a protest message, and officials at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo will visit the Japanese foreign ministry.

    According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, the Japanese Education Ministry approved a textbook published by a right-wing group for use in junior high schools from next year until 2011. It is not yet clear how many schools will use the new version.

    The textbook justifies Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945 and glosses over its invasion of other nations during World War II, Yonhap said.

    The book also says ancient Korea was ruled by Japan through its regional government on the peninsula, a theory disputed by historians in both South Korea and Japan, Yonhap said.