Korean History Textbook Accused of "Glorifying Pro-Japanese Collaborators" Has Approval Revoked

Ministry of Education Finalizes Revocation of Approval for
Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation's
High School Korean History 1 and 2 Textbooks

The high school Korean history textbook published by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, which has sparked controversy due to its glorification of pro-Japanese collaborators and dictatorships as well as procedural flaws, has had its approval revoked.

On July 14, the Ministry of Education announced that it has finalized the revocation of approval for the high school textbooks Korean History 1 and Korean History 2, published by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.

This measure follows the results of an audit conducted by the Board of Audit and Inspection in April.

The Board of Audit and Inspection determined that the textbooks did not meet the qualifications required for approval and notified the Ministry of Education to take appropriate action in accordance with Article 38, Paragraph 1 of the Regulations on Textbooks.

To apply for textbook approval, there must be a record of publishing at least one related book for the subject in question within the past three years.

It was found that the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation simply changed the cover of a history workbook originally published in 2007 and republished it in 2023.

Additionally, the textbooks have consistently faced criticism for their content, such as not using the term "dictatorship" when referring to the administration of Syngman Rhee.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.