1. Noordhoff, one of three major publishing companies in the Netherlands, released a revised edition of a history test preparation book for college-bound students, which mentions the “ROK’s miraculous economic development and full democracy” in early October, 2013. The book will be used in schools from the academic year 2014-2015.

2. Geschiedenis Werkplaats, a test-prep book with the highest market share in the Netherlands, says, quoting remarks by ROK Ambassador to the Netherlands Lee Key-cheol, that “the government of the Netherlands deployed 5,322 soldiers to the ROK during the Korean War to protect the ROK against North Korean aggression and 768 of them were killed or injured. The ROK people learn about their sacrifices in schools and are very grateful to them because such sacrifices laid foundations for the ROK’s miraculous economic development and full democracy of today.”

o In addition, the book clarifies that the cause of the Korean War was North Korea’s invasion of the ROK by saying that “North Korea’s invasion of the ROK led to the beginning of the Korean War and the invasion was Kim Il-sung's idea, not Stalin’s,” citing Soviet General Secretary Khrushchev’s memo.

3. Ambassador Lee Key-cheol stated that the release of the revised edition is significant because the book is the first test-prep book in the Netherlands to use the expression of the “ROK’s full democracy.” The Ambassador also said that the book, which uses the expression of the “ROK’s miraculous economic development,” became the second Dutch school textbook to elaborate on the ROK’s economic development after the Blue Planet, a geography textbook published by Thiememeulenhoff, which was revised in July, 2013. He added that the book is significant in that it can help the ROK with its diplomacy to repay the Korean War veterans’ services and restore their pride by making Dutch students aware that the sacrifices of Dutch war veterans sixty years ago became the driving force behind the ROK’s development.

4. Ambassador Lee said that the ROK’s high level of democracy, though not widely known compared to its economic development story, is important in showing the level of development of the ROK and that textbook writers are increasingly accepting the view that “as the ROK is the only country that was once a developing country and has achieved both full democracy and economic development, the country’s development holds significance in world history.”

5. Textbook writers from Noordhoff attended a national holiday reception at the ROK Embassy in the Netherlands on October 2 and delivered the revised edition of the book to the Embassy. Dr. Tom Geugten (Chairman of the Dutch Association of History Textbook Authors), who wrote the revised edition, told Ambassador Lee that he was pleased to publish the test-prep book that mentions the Korean War and the ROK’s development on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War and that he would continue to introduce the ROK in more textbooks.

6. The release of the book is expected to raise awareness of Dutch history teachers and many high-school students who chose to study history about the ROK. The release also means that two of three major textbook publishers in the Netherlands published books that mention the ROK’s development, creating an environment conducive to the publication of other books containing similar contents in the future. As such, the release of the book will also facilitate the ongoing efforts of the ROK Embassy in the Netherlands to include descriptions about the ROK’s development in Dutch textbooks. 


                         Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation