The presidents of two leading French universities have called on their government to swiftly return ancient royal texts to South Korea.

The president of the Université Paris 7 Vincent Berger and Jean-Loup Salzmann of the Université Paris 13 contributed an opinion piece to the French daily Libération in which they urged for the return of the texts, saying that the books' return would not impair French culture.

French critics who are against the return of the texts are calling for Paris' hard-line stance during follow-up working-level talks with Seoul on the books' return.