South Korea's parliamentary committee for foreign affairs adopted a resolution Monday calling for specific action against anti-Korean hate speech by rightist groups in Japan.   

The resolution, submitted by the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, urges the Japanese government to recognize hate speech as "violence and acts against humanity" threatening the safety and livelihoods of Koreans living in Japan. 

It also calls on the Japanese government to take specific action to end the anti-Korean protests. 

The original draft of the resolution described the protests as "murderous criminal acts" and "racially discriminatory hate crimes," but the wording was later watered down to avoid causing diplomatic friction.   

Between 2011 and July of this year, 349 anti-Korean protests have taken place near the South Korean embassy and in the Tokyo area, with sales of Korean shops dropping sharply and Korean residents, including children, expressing feelings of anxiety and severe stress, the resolution said.   

Relations between the two former historical rivals have been strained in recent years due to territorial and other disputes stemming from their shared history. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45.   

During Monday's meeting, the committee also approved the extension of South Korean troops' deployment to Lebanon and South Sudan by one year each.   

If the proposals pass through a plenary session of the National Assembly, the troops will be stationed in the two countries until December 2015.   

The troops are mostly involved in humanitarian and reconstruction work.   

The parliamentary defense committee, meanwhile, approved the extension of South Korean troops' deployment to Somalia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by another year.   

The motions, if passed through a plenary session, will endorse the troops' deployment through December 2015.