Four in 10 South Koreans think that Japan's claim to the easternmost South Korean islets of Dokdo is the most serious historical problem facing South Korea, a poll showed Thursday.
In the survey of 637 adults nationwide by job portal Scout and a private company, 40.7 percent said the most urgent historical task for South Korea, China and Japan is to resolve Japan's claim to Dokdo.
Thirty-three percent of the respondents cited China's distortion of Northeast Asian history involving the ancient Korean kingdoms as the most urgent historical problem, followed by the conscription of Korean women as comfort women for the colonial Japanese military (17.6 percent) and Japanese leaders' frequent visits to the Yasukuni Shrine (7.5 percent), where the country's class-A war criminals are honored.