The country's civic and human rights organizations formed a standing alliance Monday to stage systematic and long-term protests over the Japanese textbook issue.

The Japanese Ministry of Education early this month approved a controversial history textbook edited by a right-wing group of academics that has adopted a nationalistic interpretation of Japanese history, raising the strongest outrage in Korea.

Representatives from 59 non-governmental organizations declared the dissolution of a provisional association and the launch of a permanent body at an office of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

An official of the new alliance said...the expansion of the organization is aimed at implementing more systematic and long-term strategies over the textbook issue.

The organization, tentatively called, "Movement for Korea-Japan Textbook Rectification," will urge the Seoul government to take a sterner position on the issue while studying history textbooks in use in South Korea and Japan to correct distorted sections on their common history.