Korean textbook controversy refers to controversial content in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

-approved

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

textbooks used in the

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

(high schools) in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The controversies primarily concern portrayal of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

and the description of the regime of the South Korean president and dictator

Park Chung-hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...

Historical context

The controversy's origins can be traced at least to 2013, when South Korea's

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

instructed publishers to revise their history textbooks. In 2015 the South Korean

National Institute of Korean History The National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) is a South Korean national organization in charge of researching, collecting, compiling, promoting the study of historical materials on Korean history. It was established as ''Guksagwan'' (국사관 � ...

announced plans to replace existing history textbooks in high schools with one authorized version by March 2017. The state-issued textbooks are to be written by a government-appointed panel of experts. In the larger context, this controversy is a part of an ongoing dispute on whether the state should control the content of history textbooks, and possibly enforce a monopoly, or whether individual schools (or teachers) should be free to choose their own textbooks. South Korea used to have state control over textbooks until the rules were relaxed in 2003 leading to the appearance of several competing textbooks used since, particularly since 2010.

Criticisms

Existing textbooks have been criticized by the government as well as by the Korean right or conservative side for being too positive on North Korean topics, and for "liberal, left-leaning" bias. On the other hand, the left, also described as liberals and progressives, represented among others by ''

The Hankyoreh ''The Hankyoreh'' (, literally "The Korean Nation" or "One Nation") is a centre-left liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. It was established in 1988 after widespread purges forced out dissident journalists, and was envisioned as an alternati ...

'' newspaper, are critical of the changes such as removing any mentions of the

Geochang massacre The Geochang massacre ( ko, 거창 양민학살 사건, Hanja: 居昌良民虐殺事件) was a massacre conducted by the third battalion of the 9th regiment of the 11th Division of the South Korean Army between 9 February 1951 and 11 February ...

and excluding photos of the first

North–South summit The North–South Summit, officially the International Meeting on Cooperation and Development, was an international summit held in Cancun, Mexico from 22 to 23 October 1981. The summit was attended by representatives of 22 countries from 5 cont ...

, which they have described as biased towards a conservative view of history and the state that lends legitimacy to the pre-democratic, authoritarian, conservative governments. In particular, the regime of Park Chung-hee, the father of the then current Korean president,

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; often in English ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges. Park was the fi ...

, is seen by liberals as given a "white-wash" treatment by the new revisions. The conservatives rebuke that the current textbooks describe Park Chung-hee and his predecessor,

Rhee Syng-man Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...

, in an excessively negative manner. Other controversial topics involve the framing of the pro-democratic protests against Park's regime, or the inclusion of the story of Korean teenage heroine Yu Gwan-sun. Liberals had also criticized the action on the grounds that the government control over textbooks is limiting freedom of speech and spreading propaganda. As of October 22, 2015, a petition against the new textbook reform had over 50,000 signatures. The government has also been facing several lawsuits, including one by the current textbook authors who accuse the government of

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

. The plan has been described as controversial, and has led to public protests. Over 400 Korean history professors have expressed their opposition to the proposal. Outside Korea, the proposal has been criticized by over 200 professors of

Korean studies Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Ko ...

. An opinion poll showed the Korean public opinion divided into approximately 50% against the new textbook plan, and 36% in favor. Several commentators compared this to the

comfort women Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ia ...

issue, noting that with the recent government interference into the content of history books, South Korea is losing its moral high ground from which it previously criticized the Japanese government for its perceived historical textbook problems.

Historical context

Criticisms

See also

References

Further reading