hankyoreh

TOKYO-South Korea and Japan said they will resume joint history research to broaden mutual understanding for each other.

The joint project had halted in 2005 due to disagreements between both countries.

According to the Korean Embassy in Tokyo on April 25, Jo Gwang, a professor at Korea University, and Yasushi Toriumi, a professor of Tokyo University, who are representatives of the second-term South Korea-Japan research institute, will hold a meeting in Seoul on April 27 to discuss an agenda.

During a foreign ministers’ meeting on Jeju Island at the end of last month, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso agreed to establish the second-term research institute as soon as possible.

The second-term research institute is slated to tackle subjects including a problem related to the coverage of schoo history textbooks in the two nations - the very issue which halted the first-term joint research institute. After conducting research for three years since 2002, scholars of the two countries announced their first report on three categories - the ancient, medieval, and modern times. At that time, Seoul demanded that the research institute’s findings be reflected in the textbooks of the two nations, but Japan rejected this request.

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