Ethnic Koreans living around the world will gather in Korea for an annual festival this month.

Marking the 60th anniversary of Korea's founding, the World Koreans Festival 2008 will be held in Seoul and Gyeongju from Friday till September 24th, with about 500 Koreans from 44 countries participating.

On Friday, the participants will hold an athletic contest at the Misari soccer field west of Seoul, before attending a banquet in the evening.

They will visit the Unification Observatory on Mount Odu Saturday and the Korean Folk Village on Sunday before touring historic sites in Gyeongju.

The festival began in 1989 to commemorate Seoul's hosting of the 1988 Olympic Games. Since the festival's inception, 13-thousand overseas Koreans from 100 countries around the world have visited Korea.