North and South Korea have agreed to jointly search for the remains of a late Korean independence fighter.

According to the Unification Ministry Tuesday, the agreement was reached Monday during a meeting of officials from the two sides at the North's border city of Gaesong.

The ministry said in a statement that the two Koreas will launch a joint search to locate the remains of the late Ahn Jung-geun, which are widely believed to be in Dalian in China's northeastern Liaoning province.

The ministry added that the two sides also agreed to exchange letters through the truce village of Panmunjeom before the end of April to further discuss details surrounding the project, including a timetable for the search.

Ahn is believed to have been executed at a Japanese prison in Dalian and buried nearby in 1910, one year after he assassinated governor-general of the Japanese colonial government, Hirobumi Ito, in Harbin, China.

The joint investigation would be the second inter-Korean project concerning Korea's colonial past. Last year, the two sides worked together for the return of an 18th-century Joseon Dynasty stone monument that was looted by Japan during its colonial occupation of Korea.