Foreign Ministry officials said Monday that South Korea and Japan on Monday agreed to form a joint history research organization and hold the group's first round of meetings next month. President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed to set up the organization last October and the two countries have been under working-level discussions on how to specifically organize the body since then. An official noted that they failed to insert into the agreement document a clause calling for the outcome of the joint history research to be reflected into both sides' future school textbooks. He added...the failure was attributable to Japan's objection. Instead, both sides agreed to refer to the results of the joint history research in the process of producing their school textbooks. The joint history research group would be operated by a panel of 10 experts from each side and an advisor's group formed by officials from both governments. The operation period of the group is set to be two years and it can be extended if necessary. The panel of experts would coordinate both sides' differences in their history based on facts from ancient, medieval and modern times.