All-out effort to correct textbook pledged

The South Korean government announced Thursday a set of measures to be taken against Japan for its approval of textbooks that gloss over its colonial and wartime wrongdoing as part of Seoul`s all-out offensive to redress the grievance about historical distortion. The steps will include opposition to Tokyo`s bid for permanent membership in the U.N. Security Council, postponement of market opening to Japanese cultural products and putting up a multinational front on the issue.

The hardened position departed greatly from the earlier line of the Seoul government to deal with the textbook dispute, apart from other diplomatic topics. Unless Japan responds in good faith to the protest from Korea, the friendly and cooperative ties between the two neighbors that had advanced since the joint declaration for new partnership in the 21st century made in October 1998 might suffer great setbacks.

These measures were adopted at a meeting of the task force formed to study countermeasures and headed by Kim Sang-Kwon, vice minister of education and education and human resources development, and comprising officials from related ministries, including the foreign affairs-trade and gender equality, the presidential office and the office of cabinet policy coordination. It began with a briefing by the recalled Korean ambassador to Tokyo Choi Sang-Yong.

All diplomatic means and resources will be exhausted to pressure Japan to correct the disputed history textbooks, government sources here said. ``We are determined to push Japan to the last, going farther than taking short-term measures only,`` one of the sources said.

Another ranking official commented that Japan had lost its claim to be a leading member of international society, warning against major damage it could sustain as a result of the mistake involving history textbooks.

``Because textbooks present a problem of principle, any compromise cannot be accepted,`` he said. ``There are a number of cards to be used against Japan, and we will keep up efforts to persistently reveal the shameful parts of history Japanese want to cover up.``

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Boo Hyung-Kwon bookum90@donga.com