"The government should earmark more budgets..."Seoul (ANTARA News/Yonhap) - Chinese textbooks provide distorted views on Korean history and carry some incorrect information, a lawmaker said Thursday.
According to the report by Seoul-based Northeast Asian History Foundation and unveiled by Rep. Do Jong-hwan of the main opposition Democratic United Party, China`s seven types of history textbooks for middle school students and eight types for high schoolers turned out to contain a total of 16 errors in describing Korean history.
Some textbooks disparage historical details of Korea`s two ancient kingdoms -- Koguryo (B.C. 37 to A.D. 668) and Balhae (A.D. 699-926), according to the report.
While Balhae is the successor state to Koguryo and occupied southern parts of Manchuria in northeastern China, the maritime province of Russia and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula from the late 7th century to the early 10th century, the textbooks say it was founded by one of China`s ethnic groups called Mohe.
Others exaggerate China`s influence by describing that the territory of its ancient kingdom, the Western Han Dynasty, stretched far south to the middle of the Korean Peninsula, though there existed an independent Korean kingdom, the report showed.
"The government should earmark more budgets and bring together relevant ministries and agencies to correct such errors and to better promote the Korean history in right ways," Do said.
Under its history research project, dubbed as "the Northeast Project," China has made an attempt to incorporate the Korean history of Koguryo and its successor Balhae into its own, which Seoul rejects as a political motivation to assert its own grandeur while seeking to emerge as an Asian and global hegemony.
(T.A045/H-AK)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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