A Japanese cultural foundation has again refused to return a five-story stone pagoda the Japanese stole from Korea's Icheon city during the colonial era.

Officials of Icheon and a South Korean committee working on the pagoda's retrieval held talks with the foundation officials in Tokyo on Wednesday. They also delivered a demand signed by 100-thousand Icheon citizens calling for the pagoda’s return.

The foundation appears unwilling to return it, saying that the pagoda has belonged to Japan for nearly a century.

But the committee says the fact that the foundation was willing to hear out the demands is an accomplishment and that the committee will pursue further negotiations.

The stone pagoda was built in Icheon during the early Goryeo dynasty. The Japanese colonial government moved it to the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul before taking it to Japan in 1918.