[CPProt.net] Korea Asks France for Photocopy of Looted Books

[Ellie Bruggeman]

    Korea Asks France for Photocopy of Looted Books
	
By Bae Keun-min
Staff Reporter

The South Korean government has asked France for digital copies of all 
ancient Korean books that the European nation took from a royal archive 
in the 19th century.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday that it 
requested high-definition digital copies of 297 books for research 
purposes last month at the request of the local academia.

``We asked for permission for photographing the books last month through 
consultation with the Cultural Heritage Administration so as to give 
better access to our scholars and citizens,’’ the ministry said. ``We 
haven’t received any response so far.’’

The government plans to send experts to a national library of the 
European country in Paris and make color photoprints of the books with 
digital cameras to construct a database.

In 1866, France seized 297 volumes of some 1,000 books reserved in the 
``Oegyujanggak,’’ a royal Choson Kingdom archive on Kanghwado Island off 
the west coast, when its armed forces attacked the island.

France invaded the island after six French Catholic missionaries were 
put to death by authorities of the kingdom. The remaining books were 
destroyed in a fire.

The Korean government officially asked for the return of the 297 books 
in July 1992 for the first time. In 2001, the two countries reached a 
tentative agreement, in which France would permanently loan the books to 
Korea and in return Korea would lend France other ancient Korean 
documents of similar historical importance.

However, the agreement was scrapped as many South Koreans objected to 
the accord, saying it would not be fair to trade other cultural assets 
for looted cultural properties.

The ministry said the request to make the digital copies has nothing to 
do with negotiations between the two nations over the ownership of the 
books.

Since late last year, the two nations have been in new negotiations for 
ownership of the books but with no visible progress.

The ministry said it will start by making replicas of 30 books that 
Korea has no transcription of and make copies of the rest later

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