World news has returned from South Korea, a Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple about 13 years ago

A 14th -century Korean Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple was returned on Monday about 13 years ago, after a year -long legal battle between Japan and South Korea on its ownership, which was more stressful for sensitive relations between the two Asian neighbors. Dozens of temples of the temple and local residents standing on the roadside appreciated the statue as a truck carrying a wooden container, which arrived at Kannoji, a temple in Tsushima, a western island in Japan. The statue is expected to be kept in a local museum after a ceremony in the temple during the day. Gilt bronze statue is worshiped for mercy and compassion – is shown in a seating position and measures about 50 cm (20 inches) in height. It has been named a cultural property in the region and in 2012, one of the two stolen idols stolen from Kannaji was stolen by thieves who wanted to sell him in South Korea. The second statue was returned to the Japanese temple soon after the South Korean government was recovered from the thieves by the authorities, who were arrested and accused. But Bodhistwa, a South Korean temple in the western coastal city of Cesson, got caught in a legal dispute, a case claimed, claimed as the correct owner. In 2023, the Supreme Court of South Korea ruled in favor of the Japanese temple, ordered the South Korean temple to be returned to the statue. After all the paperwork was completed in January, the idol remained on a 100-day loan in the South Korean temple for a farewell exhibition. The temple of South Korea said that it was saddened by the return of the statue and insisted that it was the right owner. “All our loyal … feel like crying,” Voonau, the major monk of the temple, told the associated press on the phone. He insisted that Japan deserves “looted” and “international condemnation” to the statue from Korea. Seko Tanaka, a former prominent monk of Kannoji, told reporters that the handover ceremony at the South Korean temple on Saturday was really cordial and we shook hands. ” “A calm after a storm,” he said, saying that he is still relieved to see the dispute, while he is still alive. Tanaka said he hopes that the South Koreans will visit Tsushima and discover their centuries -old cultural relations with Korea, although there will now be high security around the statue. Japan and South Korea have long disposed of Japanese atrocities during their 1910–1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, although their relationship improved due to shared concern over regional security.