Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday criticized Japan for the country's latest territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo and demanded that Tokyo withdraw its attempts to distort history.

A textbook screening committee under Japan's education ministry approved 296 textbooks Tuesday for first-year high school students, including 30 kinds for social studies subjects that contain Tokyo's territorial claims to Dokdo.

"We demand that Japan, as a responsible member of the international community, immediately withdraw its history distortion attempts and participate in the improvement of South Korea-Japan relations, and peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia through genuine self examination," Chung wrote on Facebook.

Chung stressed Dokdo is "historically, geographically and in terms of international law undeniably South Korean territory" and that the notion of history should "remain objective by transcending space, time, ideology and state borders."

"What should really be embarrassing is the act of hiding and distorting the past wrongdoings and not owning up to them," Chung said. He asked Tokyo to educate young Japanese on history correctly in order to prevent the "barbaric history" caused by Japan from reoccurring in the future.

Chung also touched on the topics of forced mobilization of Korean workers for labor and sexual slavery by Tokyo during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial era, describing these past wrongdoings as "historical truths which cannot be buried."

South Korea has maintained a small Coast Guard unit on Dokdo since 1954 in a show of its effective control of the easternmost islets, but Japan has consistently claimed sovereignty over the territory, which is rich in fish and hydrate gas. (Yonhap)