Korean history textbook controversies

The controversy's origins can be traced at least to 2013, when South Korea's Ministry of Education instructed publishers to revise their history textbooks. In 2015 the South Korean National Institute of Korean History announced plans to replace existing history textbooks in high schools with one authorized version by March 2017. The state-issued textbooks are to be written by a government-appointed panel of experts. In the larger context, this controversy is a part of an ongoing dispute on whether the state should control the content of history textbooks, and possibly enforce a monopoly, or whether individual schools (or teachers) should be free to choose their own textbooks. South Korea used to have state control over textbooks until the rules were relaxed in 2003 leading to the appearance of several competing textbooks used since, particularly since 2010. ==Criticisms==

Existing textbooks have been criticized by the government as well as by the Korean right or conservative side for being too positive on North Korean topics, and for "liberal, left-leaning" bias. On the other hand, the left, also described as liberals and progressives, represented among others by The Hankyoreh newspaper, are critical of the changes such as removing any mentions of the Geochang massacre and excluding photos of the first North–South summit, which they have described as biased towards a conservative view of history and the state that lends legitimacy to the pre-democratic, authoritarian, conservative governments. The conservatives rebuke that the current textbooks describe Park Chung Hee and his predecessor, Syngman Rhee, in an excessively negative manner. Liberals had also criticized the action on the grounds that the government control over textbooks is limiting freedom of speech and spreading propaganda. The plan has been described as controversial, and has led to public protests. Outside Korea, the proposal has been criticized by over 200 professors of Korean studies.The debate has also extended into academic circles, where some scholars, including Lee Young-hoon, have questioned elements of prevailing nationalist historiography. ==See also==