President Park Geun-hye called for a correct recognition of history Tuesday as she asked lawmakers not to divide the public sentiment with an unnecessary controversy over history textbooks.
“History education should never divide the people and students over political strife or ideological confrontation,” Park said in a meeting with her top aides.
On Monday, the government announced its plan to reintroduce state history textbooks for secondary school students to address what it calls the predominantly left-leaning contents in current books.
The Ministry of Education said history textbooks for middle and high school students will be authored by the government starting in the 2017 school year.
Currently, history textbooks are published by eight private publishing companies after being approved by an independent textbook review committee of experts. Schools choose from any of the eight textbooks, while primary schools have a single set of state-authored history textbooks.
Park also said she could hold in-depth consultations with U.S. President Barack Obama on peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia, citing a series of summits between regional leaders.
She made the comments three hours before leaving for Washington for summit talks with Obama.
Last month, Park met with her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing, followed by a summit between Obama and Xi in Washington.
South Korea, China and Japan are also scheduled to hold trilateral summit talks at the end of the month or the start of next month.
A trilateral summit has not been held since May 2012 due to tensions mainly over Japan’s attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45 and controlled much of China in the early part of the 20th century.
Park also asked lawmakers to quickly ratify a series of free trade deals South Korea has inked with China, New Zealand and Vietnam to help benefit to South Korean companies.
South Korea and China signed a free trade agreement in June, though the deal has yet to be ratified by the respective legislatures of Seoul and Beijing.
South Korea has clinched a series of free trade agreements with major trading partners, including the U.S. and China, in recent years as part of its efforts to boost growth in the country’s export-driven economy.
South Korea’s exports represent around 50 percent of its gross domestic product.
She also called on lawmakers to pass a series of bills to reform the labor sector following a landmark deal to revamp the country’s rigid labor market. (Yonhap)
