A South Korean civic group has appealed to the Japanese government to return a Joseon Dynasty royal archive to Korea.

The committee on reclaiming royal records from Korea’s last dynasty said a Korean-Japanese lawyer visited Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and submitted the group's petition.

Korean and Japanese vice foreign ministers are said to have discussed the matter as well.

The royal archive in question, the “Joseon Wangsil Uigwe," illustrates how royal ceremonies were carried out in the Joseon era. In particular, it includes an account of the funeral of slain Empress Myeongseong.

The Joseon Dynasty records are currently held by the Japanese Imperial Household Agency. Their original home had been destroyed by a Japanese administrator during Japan's colonial rule of Korea. The administrator later donated 72 kinds of royal records to Japan.

The committee seeking the return of the archives was launched by Buddhist monks in 2006. At the end of that year, the National Assembly passed a resolution on reclaiming the royal records.