Japan is once again getting involved in a sensitive territorial issue,... angering South Korea at a time when Seoul and Tokyo need to work together amid the push for diplomacy with North Korea.
In its official gazette released Friday,... the Japanese government said it's revising high school teaching guidelines to say -- wrongly -- that Dokdo Island in the East Sea is Japanese territory, not Korean.
Our Park Ji-won has more on this.
Ji-won, tell us more.

Yes, Mark, disappointingly,... the Japanese government has announced its revised teaching guidelines for high school students through its official gazette on Friday.
With the announcement,... Japan now has the legal basis to teach false and distorted information to its future generations.
Last year, the Japanese government also revised its legally-binding teaching guidelines for elementary and middle school students,... to include incorrect territorial claims toward Korea's easternmost island Dokdo.
Back in 2008, Japan first started to include the provocative claim that Korea and Japan do not share a common understanding on Dokdo in its non-legally-binding middle school teaching guideline commentary,... causing strong protests and a backlash from the Korean government.
So now it seems that,... for the last ten years,... despite official protests from Korea,... Japan has made its education system from elementary school to high school,... teach students these false territorial claims.
With the changes,... publishers of school textbooks in Japan are now required by law to refer to Dokdo as Japanese territory.
And the textbooks for elementary schools should include such wrongful territorial claims from 2020,... middle school books from 2021,... and high school textbooks from 2022.

Jiwon,... then how's Korea's foreign ministry responding to this latest move?

The South Korean government has strongly condemned the Japanese government's move,... urging it to immediately repeal its legally-binding teaching guidelines that make false claims over the Korean territory.
Seoul's foreign ministry summoned the Japanese Ambassador to South Korea, Yasumasa Nagamine ( ), this morning at around 10:30,... and South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam delivered the South Korean government's position,... urging the Japanese government to repeal the wrongful guidelines.
The foreign ministry also issued a statement this morning that Dokdo is historically, geographically,... and legally Korea's territory,... which was first invaded and occupied during Japan's attempt to colonize Korea in the past.
The statement added that if Japan continues to fail to see its errors of imperialistic aggression in the past,... Japan will lose a precious opportunity to learn from the past and prepare the future.
The statement also vowed that the Korean government will sternly respond to any of such moves.