A Seoul court ruled Thursday that a government order to have all Korean history textbooks revised in 2013 was legal.

At the time, left-leaning historians had asked the government to ban a textbook they thought contained a conservative bias.

They criticized the textbook published by Kyohak Publishing Co. for being partial to Japan, which colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45, and glorifying South Korea's past authoritarian governments.

The education ministry subsequently ordered all eight history textbooks, seven of which had already been approved, to be modified.

Historians were asked to clarify details about the 1950-53 Korean War; North Korea's "juche," or self-reliance, ideology; and the 2010 torpedoing of a South Korean warship by North Korea, among other items.

Liberal authors of six of these textbooks applied for a court injunction, which they were denied in December 2013.

They have also asked the court to nullify what they called a unilateral decision by the government.

The Seoul Administrative Court, however, called the government decision valid.

"The government's intention was to convey more accurate information to students," Judge Kim Kyeong-ran said in the ruling.

"Therefore, it is fair to say the order had an important purpose." (Yonhap)