South Korea has returned a Korean Buddha statue to Japan after it was stolen by a group of art thieves three years ago from a Japanese temple on Tsushima Island. 
 
Kyodo news agency reported that officials of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japanese Embassy in Seoul visited the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in Daejeon where the statue had been kept. 
 
The artifact was transported to Japan via airplane on Friday.
 
The standing figure of Buddha was crafted in Korea during the Unified Silla period in the 8th century. 
 
Korean prosecutors decided to return the statue since they could not determine how the artifact was first taken to Japan.