South Korea and Japan on Tuesday will officially announce a general agreement they have reached on Tokyo's return of Korean historic assets that Japan took from the Korean Peninsula during colonial rule.

A Foreign Ministry official said Monday that the two governments have nearly reached an agreement on the list of cultural assets to be included and the guidelines for their return.

A diplomatic source said that the number of cultural assets will be much larger than expected.
The two governments will reportedly disclose the number of cultural assets to be returned but not the list of specific items.

In August, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan pledged to return Korean historic assets in his apology made to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the colonial occupation.