Democratic Party of Japan leader Seiji Maehara criticized South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on Sunday, saying his understanding of contentious bilateral issues such as the territorial and history textbook disputes is "shallow."
"There is something wrong with Mr. Roh" in urging Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to settle the territorial dispute over Takeshima Island when South Korea "effectively controls" it, Maehara said on a TV Asahi program.
He was referring to the group of islets in the Sea of Japan, called Tok-do in South Korea, that both countries claim.
Roh urged Koizumi to resolve the territorial dispute, references in Japan's junior high school history textbooks and Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine when they met Friday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Pusan, South Korea.
"Also on the textbook issue, (Roh's) understanding of the Japanese textbook screening system appears shallow," Maehara said.
South Korea is calling on the Japanese government not to authorize the use of textbooks that Seoul says attempt to whitewash Japan's militarist past. But Tokyo has flatly dismissed the view.
Japan has said none of the textbooks it has approved for use in junior high schools starting next April justify the wartime aggression.
Maehara also criticized Koizumi for continuing visits to Yasukuni Shrine but said, "I'm not saying (he) should stop going there because South Korea and China told him so."
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