REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SEOUL -- South Korea said Tuesday it is seeking "various" methods to address public concern here over Japan's listing of an old academy tied to the country's militaristic past as world heritage.

The Shokasonjuku Academy in Yamaguchi Prefecture is among 23 Japanese sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage list Sunday as a token of "the Meiji industrial Revolution." The package also included seven early industrial locations where nearly 60,000 Koreans were forced to work under harsh conditions in the early 1940s, when Korea was under Japan's colonial rule.

South Korea, a member of the World Heritage Committee, focused its diplomatic efforts on coaxing Japan to acknowledge the history of forced labor.

But a new controversy has erupted in South Korea over the registration of the academy run by Shoin Yoshiada (1830-1859), known as a key player in Japan's imperialism and expansionism.

The private school produced a number of top leaders behind Japan's modernization and aggression, including the annexation of Korea from 1910-45.

Some activists said the listing of the academy as world heritage is tantamount to allowing Japan to justify and beautify its militaristic past.

The South Korean government said it also has such concerns.

"We are reviewing ways (to deal with the issue) on various levels," Foreign Ministry's spokesman Noh Kwang-il said at a press briefing. "We believed that it's not effective to take issue with that at the World Heritage Committee."

He did not provide details.

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