N. Korea slams Japan for distorting history in textbooks

North Korea on Tuesday denounced Japan for distorting history and instilling false ideas in Japanese children's minds through textbooks for school students.

The daily Minju Joson (Democratic Korea) said Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology "opened to public the results of screening of textbooks for high schools", which said Tok Islets of Korea are part of the territory of Japan and that they were illegally occupied by others.

"Japan has long pursued the ambition for militarist overseas expansion and Korea is the primary target of overseas aggression and Tok Islets are like the gateway to invading Korea," Xinhua news agency cited the article as saying.

"Hence, the Japanese reactionaries are working so hard to grab the islets in a bid to create favourable conditions for overseas aggression.

"The Japanese reactionaries are keen to imbue the younger generation with the distorted view on history and use them as a shock brigade for overseas aggression which their forefathers failed to realise," it said.

"It is a crime to implant into their minds the view on history peppered with lies, distortions and reactionary ideas," it added.

Japan has been claiming sovereignty over the Tok Islets which both North and South Korea say are historical territory of Korea.

Japan forcibly annexed Korea in early 20th century and enslaved Koreans for nearly 40 years during its brutal occupation and colonial rule of the peninsula.