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The Japanese government will clarify Monday whether new teaching guidelines for secondary school textbooks will state Tokyo's claim to Korea¡¯s Dokdo islets. The Education Ministry will state its position in a briefing on the new teaching guidelines for officials from educational offices nationwide.
Korea-Japan relations could enter a new ice age if the new guidelines state Japan's claim to Dokdo or claim that Korea is illegally occupying the islets.
In a general textbook guideline released in February, the Japanese government did not say anything about Dokdo in consideration of the upcoming Korea-Japan summit in April. But faced with strong opposition from rightwing lawmakers, including from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Japanese government promised to include it instead in the new teaching guidelines for textbooks.
"According to its original policy, the Japanese government will likely include¡± Dokdo in the document, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday. ¡°But it is making final adjustments in such a way as to avoid the expression 'Japanese territory' in consideration of South Korea's position." Instead, Japan will mention Dokdo right after the Kuril Islands, which it wants returned from Russia, the daily added.
This suggests Japan will mention Dokdo as a disputed area in a roundabout way, rather than directly describing it as Japanese territory. But since the Korean position is that there can be no territorial issue with Dokdo, which indisputably belongs to Korea, the reaction from Seoul remains to be seen.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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