Park suggests joint history textbook for Northeast Asia

South Korean President Park Geun-hye suggested Thursday that making a joint history textbook among Northeast Asian nations is a good way to promote peace and cooperation in a region riven by history and territorial rows.

Park made the remark in an address to an academic conference marking the 50th anniversary of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, saying Northeast Asia should learn from the way European nations tried to heal World War II wounds and bond closely together.

"As Germany and France, and Germany and Poland did, we can publish a joint history textbook for Northeast Asia and build up practices of cooperation and dialogue," Park said. That would advance the "day when we can tear down the wall of history problems, the source of rows and distrust."

South Korea, China and Japan are key economic partners with each other. But efforts to move three-way cooperation further forward have been hamstrung by tensions stemming largely from Japan's militaristic past, including its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Japan has snubbed South Korea's calls for resolving long-running grievances over its colonial-era atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of Korean women for its troops during World War II. It has also kept laying claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Tokyo has a similar territorial row with China.

The tensions have forced the cancellation of an annual three-way cooperation summit this year.

In a departure from her predecessors, Park has not held an official summit with Japan since taking office in February. She has said she sees no point in holding a summit with Tokyo as long as the neighboring nation maintains wrong perceptions of history.

In Thursday's address, Park said Northeast Asia is emerging as the world's most dynamic region leading global growth and has the potential to become the world's largest economic bloc in the near future. But first, history problems must be overcome, she said.

"We have to make Northeast Asia a place for trust and cooperation," she said.

Park outlined her "Northeast Asia peace and cooperation initiative," a process that calls for Northeast Asian nations to build trust in a step-by-step manner beginning with softer, non-political issues, such as environmental issues, disaster relief, nuclear safety and counter-terrorism.

"As this process makes progress, I firmly believe there will ultimately come a point in time when we can discuss the most sensitive issues as well," she said.

Park also stressed that rows in Northeast Asia must be resolved peacefully and should never involve "military means." She said countries in the region should make their policy intentions transparent and take other confidence-building steps to prevent military clashes.

If cooperation builds in the region, it would also help resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, she said. (Yonhap News)