South Korean citizens' groups are organizing a protest via the Internet, urging the public to simultaneously access and crash the Web pages of Japan's education ministry and a publishing house to protest the introduction of a controversial history textbook, South Korean media reported Saturday.
The home page of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry was inundated with hits from Saturday morning, ministry officials said, making it difficult to access. "Our server is working normally, and no illegal hacking has been reported," a ministry official said. "But we have never faced this sort of situation before."
Messages posted on bulletin boards on several South Korean Web sites have called on the public to access the sites in large numbers in order to crash them as a way of demonstrating opposition to the textbook.
According to the media reports, the groups have called for the action to protest the history textbook which, they claim, distorts history and justifies Japan's military aggression against its Asian neighbors during the war. The targets for the Internet attacks also include the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the scholars who compiled the school book.
The textbook is reportedly undergoing major modifications and is expected to be officially approved for publication this month.