The South Korean prosecution said on Sunday that it has returned eleven smuggled dinosaur fossils to the Mongolian government.
 
Expressing its gratitude, the Mongolian government offered to grant a long-term lease of the fossils to South Korea where they will be exhibited as early as the second half of this year.
 
The returned Mongolian fossils include those of Tarbosaurus bataar, Protoceratops and a dinosaur egg.
 
Lim Jong-deok, a senior researcher at the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, said the fossils are assessed to be among the most valuable dinosaur fossils in the world.
 
The fossils were excavated in the Mongolian desert and smuggled to China before being smuggled to South Korea in May of 2014. The South Korean prosecution said it became aware of the smuggling in February of 2015.
 
It is the first time the South Korean government officially returned a foreign cultural item smuggled into the country.