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US report to reflect China’s distortion of Korea`s Goguryeo history

US report to reflect China’s distortion of Korea`s Goguryeo history

Posted December. 24, 2012 08:43,   

한국어

The U.S. Congressional Research Service will publish a repor within weeks that contains China’s claims distorting the history of the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo.

South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Choi Young-jin told Korean correspondents in Washington Thursday, “Our demand that the report firstly describe the historical fact, which the history of Goguryeo is (part of) Korean history, has not been accepted.”

“The Congressional Research Service considered posting first the positions of neighboring countries including Korea in parts (in the report) introducing Northeast Asian history, but has informed us that it chose to list China’s claims followed by (South) Korea’s explanations due to pressing time constraints before the launch of the next Congress in January next year.”

A diplomatic source in Washington said “It was decided that the report will instead clarify in the front and back parts that the claims suggesting Goguryeo and Balhae were China’s regional governments are merely China’s opinions, and that the report`s purpose is to raise issue with China’s intentions.”

“The report will outright exclude a map that containing China’s claims, and instead will include in the parts describing historical facts as presented by (South) Korea a map backing such facts."

The report will reportedly predict China’s roles in the event of a fast-evolving situation on the Korean Peninsula, the state of China’s economic exchanges, and China’s influence over North Korea, along with content that introduces China’s historic perceptions of the peninsula.”

The report was originally set for release late last month, but the research service revised it further after accepting South Korea’s appeals. The South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry dispatched experts from the Northeast Asian History Foundation to Washington and explained Seoul`s claims to the research service.



mickey@donga.com