Presidential Spokesperson Lee Dong-kwan made the following remarks in a briefing this morning.

It seems that the report in this morning’s edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, has spread through the Internet, causing controversy in Korea. I would like to make it emphatically clear once again that the exact wording of President Lee’s remarks during a brief casual conversation with the Japanese Prime Minister at the expanded G8 Summit meeting in Toyako is as follows:

“I read a newspaper report that the Dokdo issue will be included in teachers’ guides for (Japanese) middle school textbooks. This must not happen at a time when we need to open a new era for a future-oriented Korea-Japan relationship. It is never acceptable.”

Against this backdrop, the Yomiuri Simbun report that President Lee told the JapanesePremier, “It is difficult now. I hope you will wait,” is totally groundless and preposterous. The President never made any such remarks. It is hardly possible to understand what “will wait” here is referring to.

In conclusion, if the report is a part of a Japanese Government effort to cause internal strife in Korea and distort the issue of Dokdo through the media, the Korean Government will never tolerate it.