The Education Ministry said Friday it plans to call on Japan to correct its distorted history textbooks laying claim to the South Korean islets of Dokdo.

In March, Japan approved 21 high-school textbooks, some of which describe Dokdo, a group of rocky outcroppings lying in the East Sea between the two countries, as a Japanese territory.

According to the report the ministry submitted to the National Assembly, the government plans to send a formal request to Japan asking it to correct the wrongful contents.

The ministry also said it is scheduled to send an email to Japanese civic groups and some 10,000 history teachers there to “let them know the bare truth,” and to host an international conference on the issue in August.

In a move to better respond to false claims and prevent further attempts to distort history, the Seoul government has been in consultation with relevant institutions and civic groups here to accumulate resources on key historical issues and organize them chronologically from ancient history to the present in a systematic way, its officials said.

Japan has long laid claim to Dokdo in the country’s school textbooks, government reports and through other avenues, stoking enmity in South Korea against its former colonial ruler.

South Korea also says the territorial claims amount to Japan denying Korea’s independence from its 1910-45 colonial rule, because Korea had reclaimed sovereignty over its territory ― including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula ― when it regained independence.

South Korea effectively controls the islets with a small police detachment, which has been there since 1954. (Yonhap News)