South Korea on Tuesday formally demanded that Japan make 35 revisions to eight junior high history textbooks that critics say gloss over Japan's wartime atrocities and its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Han Seung Soo, South Korea's foreign affairs and trade minister, summoned Japanese Ambassador Terusuke Terada and handed over the written requests, making the textbook issue an official diplomatic problem between the two countries.
"Distortions in some of the textbooks reopen old wounds in the minds of (South) Korean people and harm the (South) Korea-Japan friendship that is set to grow stronger in the future," Han said.
The move came after a monthlong review of the eight textbooks conducted by a Seoul government task force comprised of officials from related ministries and an advisory group of history specialists and experts on Japanese affairs.