Anchor: Japan has made sovereign claims of South Korea’s Dokdo islets in its high school textbooks, adding to the claims that exist in its middle and elementary school textbooks. The South Korean government says it will respond sternly to Japan’s actions. Jang Souie has this report.

Report: South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said the government is strongly opposed to the crooked view of history Japan is permitting in high school textbooks to be used from next year.

Cho’s remarks came shortly after the Japanese Education Ministry announced the results of its textbook review.

The Foreign Ministry said 21 of the 39 approved social studies textbooks from history to geography and modern society to politics claim Dokdo as Japanese territory.

Spokesman Cho expressed the South Korean government's strong protest over Japan’s claims. He said the East Sea islets are not only South Korea’s possessions historically but also geographically and under international law. Cho stressed that South Korea will never tolerate any kind of unjustifiable argument from Japan.

The spokesman said he is sorry that the largest victims of Japan’s warped view on history will be its younger generations, who will someday be in charge of the country’s future.

Following the news of Japan’s territorial claims, Director Cho Sae-young of the Foreign Ministry’s Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau summoned Takashi Kurai, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Korea, to lodge a complaint.

Director Cho said the results of the textbook review will not be tolerated as it not only challenges South Korea’s sovereignty but also hampers the two countries’ relations by distorting history.

Jang Souie, KBS World Radio News.