South Korea’s Education Ministry has expressed deep regret over the Japanese government’s authorization of middle school textbooks that contain Japan’s territorial claim over the South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo. The ministry also urged Tokyo to withdraw the claims.

Education Minister Lee Joo-ho wrote a message of protest delivered through the Foreign Ministry to Japan’s Vice‐Minister of Education Yoshisugu Harada.

Lee noted that the latest authorization of those claims are in violation of Japan’s own government regulations that says it should respect international interests and collaborative ties when writing textbooks.

The South Korean ministry also strongly called on the Japanese government to take “careful” measures and withdraw the territorial claims that damage amicable relations between South Korea and Japan.