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Amid tensions between Korea and Japan over a controversial history textbook and territorial claims over Dokdo, Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon turns away after shaking hands with his Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura at a summit on the sidelines of the fourth Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan.
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Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Thursday told his Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura that Korea would ¡°never permit¡± Japan to claim the Dokdo islets in its textbooks. But he failed to win a promise of immediate corrections to a series of middle school textbooks whose approval by the island country¡¯s Education Ministry has further soured already strained relations.
The two ministers met for an hour and a half on the sidelines of the fourth Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan. This was the first summit of foreign ministers since the Korean-Japanese relationship began to deteriorate over renewed Japanese claims to the island.
"It has been revealed that the textbooks descriptions of the sovereignty issue were exacerbated on the orders of the Japanese government, and [its] desire to build a future-oriented cooperative relationship has been thrown into doubt,¡± Ban said he told Machimura. ¡°This is a situation that I, not only as foreign minister but also as a citizen of Korea, find hard to permit."
He also condemned a bill by Japan¡¯s Shimane Prefecture designating a "Takeshima Day" after the Japanese name for Dokdo as an infringement on Korea's territorial sovereignty.
Ban urged Japan to heed messages conveyed in President Roh Moo-hyun's March 1 Independence Day address, his ¡°letter to the people¡± and a National Security Council statement. He called on the island country not to do anything that might nullify past apologies.
Ban also told Machimura that when President Roh promised during a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last year he would not make an issue of history while in office, Roh hoped the Japanese would work on their own to overcome the past. But Tokyo's attitude in the Dokdo and textbook disputes fell short of expectations, Ban said.
Machimura said he shared with Ban ¡°the sense of crisis that it would not be good for the future of both nations if this situation continues. The situation needs to improve, and I hope this meeting will be a first step in building a normal Korean-Japanese relationship."
Foreign Ministry officials said Ban failed to extract a promise to improve Japanese textbook descriptions of the Dokdo islets as ¡°illegally occupied by Korea.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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