By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

Prime Minister Lee Hai-chan ordered his Cabinet on Wednesday to examine how South Korean history is introduced in foreign nations’ textbooks, stressing a multi-sided approach is needed to tackle China’s move to distort Korean history involving the ancient Koguryo Kingdom.

``The people of other countries also need to know our history correctly,’’ Lee was quoted as saying by Jung Soon-kyun, head of the Government Information Agency, in a policy coordination meeting at the Central Government Complex building in downtown Seoul.

His remark came amid the Chinese government’s apparent move to revise the history of the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo (37 B.C.-A.D. 668), which has been a source of dispute between the two countries in recent weeks.

Lee also asserted that South Korea should work in three different directions in dealing with China’s apparent history distortion, according to Chung, who acts as spokesman for the government.

``There should be distinct approaches toward China, the South Korean public and other foreign nations when coping with China’s attempts to distort history,’’ Lee was quoted as saying.

Chung explained the prime minister instructed relevant offices to closely monitor if there are any false descriptions of the nation’s history abroad.

In a separate press briefing, Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the Seoul government will not tolerate any attempt by Beijing to claim the history of Koguryo.

``We will keep urging China to rectify its wrongdoings related to Koguryo and stop further attempts to distort history, such as the revision of its textbooks,’’ Ban said.

However, Ban called for a cool-headed approach from a long-term perspective, saying his ministry will do its best to prevent the revision of the schoolbooks scheduled for this fall from taking an undesirable direction.

He said the government will consider whether to scrap its policy of banning Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, from visiting South Korea if it reemerges as a main item of controversy, but would not link that with the Koguryo case.

In the meantime, Minister Ban added, ``The Gando problem is a very delicate matter involving many countries, including North Korea.’’

Ban’s remark drew special attention as it could mean that the South Korean government could take issue with the 1909 Gando Convention, which set the current border between China and North Korea, in the future _ probably after the reunification of the two Koreas.

Japan ceded territorial rights of Gando, which belonged to the Choson Kingdom before it was colonized by Japan, to the Qing Dynasty in 1909 for its exclusive rights to build and control a railway in Manchuria. Despite these changes, the inhabitants of Gando were mostly Koreans and the area remained under significant Korean influence.

Historians assert it is illegitimate, as the agreement was made during the period of Japanese colonial rule. Japanese treaties concerning Korea during the colonial rule were rendered illegitimate after the fall of the Japanese Empire. A group of legislators recently pushed for a resolution asserting the invalidity of the 1909 convention.

``Please, do not play up my words,’’ Ban told reporters. However, he clearly stated that the Gando problem is ``a matter that should be dealt with carefully after collecting more accurate historical data.’’

Most Koreans believe the Koguryo Kingdom, whose territory in its heyday extended from the northern part of the Korean Peninsula to the greater part of Manchuria, to be an essential part of their history. Both South and North Koreans take pride in the legacy of the ancient regime that straddled borderlands, especially its independent spirit, military might and cultural achievements.

But the Chinese government has recently been arguing that the ancient kingdom belongs to its own history, not Korea’s. The move became more tangible when artifacts from Koguryo, currently spread in the territories of North Korea and China, were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in June.

China’s foreign ministry recently deleted Koguryo, along with Paekche and Silla, the two other kingdoms that made up the Three Kingdom Era, from an introduction to Korean history on its Web site.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr