South Korea, China and Japan will jointly publish a new history textbook next year as part of efforts by civic organizations of the three countries to counter distortions of history.

Bu Ping, an official of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Monday some 30 historians and teachers from the three countries have recently finished the first draft of their joint textbook.

The children's history textbook deals with the history of Northeast Asia from the late 19th century to the present day.

Civic groups started the project in June 2002 to counter alleged Japanese distortions of history. In the previous year, Japanese right-wing historians published a history book that omitted mention of the Japanese military's sexual slavery of Asian women during World War II and glorified the actions of Japan's militarism before and during the conflict.

The civic groups hope their joint textbook will be used as a supplementary source in elementary schools.

The first edition of the book will be published in May next year.