A ministry official said, "We've started revision of some textbook contents. People from various walks of life have complained about history and social studies textbooks. In March, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry asked us to revise anti-market economy content in elementary and secondary school textbooks."

In a recent meeting, Education Minister Kim Doh-yeon reportedly instructed ministry officials to study ways to revise textbooks, saying some of them distort the history of the Republic of Korea.

The ministry said it is also discussing a complete revision, or a completely new compilation, of textbooks, in addition to partial revisions that are carried out annually. A complete revision normally takes about five years, but given the importance of the issue, this will have to happen faster, the ministry said.

Some current textbooks, critics say, describe the Korean War not as provoked by Stalinist North Korea but rather as an inter-Korean conflict from a pro-North Korean, leftwing point of view.

The ministry will gather opinions for the revision of the textbooks until June and deliver its opinions to textbook publishers and authors. If they are only partially revised, new textbooks will be available from the first semester next year.

(englishnews@chosun.com )