Royal texts back in S. Korea from France

SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap) -- The first shipment of ancient Korean royal books returned to Seoul by plane Thursday 145 years after being looted by France, according to Seoul's culture ministry.
The 75 books of the 297-volume "Oegyujanggak" landed on an Asiana Airlines flight at 1:49 p.m. at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. After going through customs, the books are expected to reach the National Museum of Korea in Seoul by around 4 p.m., the ministry said.
Choung Byoung-gug, the culture minister, plans to hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m., it added.
In March, Seoul and Paris agreed to the transfer of the royal texts to South Korea no later than the end of May. The culture ministry here said the texts will arrive in four installments, with the final batch scheduled to be flown in on May 27.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed in November to return the royal books on a renewable lease when he held talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Seoul.
The two countries signed a formal agreement on the matter in February, and national museums of the two nations came to a consensus in Paris in March.
The Oegyujanggak books from the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty were looted by French troops in 1866 when they invaded a Korean island in retaliation for Koreans' persecution of French Catholic missionaries. The books had been kept at the National Library of France.
Seoul had long sought to retrieve the books, which dictate the protocols of royal ceremonies and rites. One of the books was returned to Korea on a permanent lease basis in 1993 by then-French President Francois Mitterrand, but other volumes had remained in France.