SEOUL, Japan, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Japan has agreed to return more than 1,200 volumes of archives it seized during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, officials said.
Japan and South Korea agreed to codify the deal into a treaty in the near future, Yonhap reported Monday.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart, Seiji Maehara, confirmed the deal during a telephone conversation Monday, the report said.
The archives include centuries-old royal books.
The agreement is Japan's first concrete step in support of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's August apology to mark the 100th anniversary of the colonization, Yonhap said.
Kan said then the royal books, known as "Uigwe," and other Korean cultural assets would be returned.
Under the agreement, "1,205 volumes of books originating from the Korean Peninsula, including Uigwe, are expected to return to South Korea," the South Korean Foreign Ministry said. "Our government appreciates the Japanese government's measure and expects cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries to increase further".
UPI
