54,000 Korean Historical Documents Are Out of the Country

Korea's outflow of historical documents such as diplomatic records and ancient writings and national treasury records totaled 54,000 items, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs announced on October 23.
The Ministry commented, 'Through various routes, we have confirmed that important national historical documents numbered 54,000 items while things related with Korea were about 1.7 million pages.'
Japan possesses the most Korean archival material with 30,000 items including the Records of Chosun Dynasty at Tokyo National University.
In America, 10,000 items of North Korean documents taken during the Korean War are dispersed in the U.S. Capitol building, National Document Reserve, and Columbia Library.
France especially has valuable Korean records including at foremost the 340 books that document the treasury records called the 'Kyujangkak Catalog' which were taken by Commodore Rose from Kanghwa Island in 1866.
These books were promised to be returned by former French President Mittereand but have not been received, yet.