South Korea Schools

Ever since Japan approved a controversial right-wing textbook in March, the South Korean government has demanded revisions to the Japanese curriculum and stepped up long-standing accusations that Japan whitewashes the history taught in its schools. Seoul insists that Japan admit to its own students and the world that it subjugated East Asia, forced Korean women into prostitution and jailed and killed men who resisted Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula.

ANSAN, South Korea - Seniors from the high school that lost scores of students in last week's ferry sinking returned to class Thursday, a step toward resuming normal routines in the community that's become the focal point of South Korea's biggest maritime tragedy in decades. Of the 476 people aboard the Sewol when disaster struck on April 16, 340 were staff and students from Danwon High School. As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 171 people had been confirmed dead and 131 were still listed as missing.

ANSAN, South Korea - Seniors from the high school that lost scores of students in last week's ferry sinking returned to class Thursday, a step toward resuming normal routines in the community that's become the focal point of South Korea's biggest maritime tragedy in decades. Of the 476 people aboard the Sewol when disaster struck on April 16, 340 were staff and students from Danwon High School. As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 171 people had been confirmed dead and 131 were still listed as missing.

Ever since Japan approved a controversial right-wing textbook in March, the South Korean government has demanded revisions to the Japanese curriculum and stepped up long-standing accusations that Japan whitewashes the history taught in its schools. Seoul insists that Japan admit to its own students and the world that it subjugated East Asia, forced Korean women into prostitution and jailed and killed men who resisted Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula.

Fed up with what the South Korean education system was doing to his children, Jeon In Soo sent his wife and two daughters to live in Canada while he helped his ailing father and wrapped up his business affairs. If all goes well, he'll join them in a few years. "On holidays and weekends I get a bit lonely, but we call and e-mail. And my children seem so happy now," the 41-year old management consultant says.

The standoff over North Korean nuclear weapons and a wave of anti-Americanism have turned what would have been a run-of-the-mill election in South Korea into one of the country's most important. South Korean voters go to the polls Thursday to choose a president to succeed Kim Dae Jung, the Nobel Peace laureate, barred by the constitution from seeking another five-year term.