S. Korea protests China's claim to ancient kingdom: Yonhap

0 Comments | Asian Political News, August 9, 2004

SEOUL, Aug. 6 Kyodo

South Korea lodged a protest with China on Friday, urging the latter to stop laying claim to an ancient Korean kingdom, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting South Korean officials.

Park Joon Woo, chief of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's Asia-Pacific Affairs Bureau, made the appeal when he met China's Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other senior officials in Beijing.

While details of Park's discussions were not immediately available, he had earlier said he planned to tell Chinese officials that the ancient Koguryo kingdom is an ''inseparable'' part of Korea's history and China should stop distorting the ''indisputable'' historical fact.

The dispute began early this year when China abruptly claimed that Koguryo, which controlled the upper part of the Korean Peninsula and much of what is today's Manchuria in China from 37 B.C. to A.D. 668, is part of its history.

In April, Yonhap reported, China's Foreign Ministry deleted references to Koguryo from pages on Korean history in its website.

It said the move, which followed a series of similar actions by other Chinese academic and media organizations, was interpreted as an attempt by China to claim the kingdom as part of its own history.

South Korea demanded that the omitted references be restored but China, instead of accepting the demand, opted Thursday to remove the entire description of Korea's history up until 1948 when South Korea was established.

In an apparent attempt to avoid criticism, China also removed the description of Japan's history prior to the end of World War II and did the same thing with North Korea's history.

There has been no official reaction from North Korea, which is in the geographical area that was controlled by Koguryo and which is home to many murals and relics dating back to the era.

With anger running high over the Chinese move, some lawmakers of the ruling Uri Party introduced a resolution in parliament Friday denouncing the Chinese move, which they argue ''shakes the Korean people down to their roots.''

''China, which experienced the pain of Japanese invasion and colonial rule together with our country, must be well aware how fatal it would be to good neighborly friendship to distort history,'' party spokesman Im Jong Seok was quoted as saying.

The main opposition Grand National Party also criticized China, saying Beijing should learn a lesson from Japan's failure to atone for its past militarism, the report said.

''China must face history straight,'' the opposition party's spokeswoman Jeon Yeo Ock was quoted as saying. ''A country that does not care about its neighboring countries and inflicts damage on them cannot become a leading country in the 21st century.''

Also Friday, Yonhap reported, the Chinese Embassy in Seoul belatedly issued entry visas to a group of South Korean lawmakers who planned to leave on a tour of Koguryo-related historical sites in China. Their departure was rescheduled for Saturday.

The embassy issued a statement dismissing reports that the delay was connected with the history issue.