More than 100 sets of remains identified as Koreans who were forced into overseas labor and died in foreign lands during Japan's colonial rule will be repatriated, a civic group said Friday.

Representatives of South Korea, consisting of the bereaved families and civic group members from Steppingstone for Peace, departed for Hokkaido, Japan, to bring back 115 sets of remains.

The remains were gathered by experts, religious people and students from the two countries in all parts of Hokkaido since 1997. It is the first time that more than a hundred sets of remains are delivered at once.

On Thursday, 13 sets of remains found in Sakhalin, Russia, arrived at Incheon International Airport.

The forced mobilization was carried out when the Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony from 1910-45. Many Koreans were conscripted into the Japanese military or drafted to work in the military industrial sector, being deployed in Japan and other countries against their will.

Many of them returned home after the 1945 liberation of Korea, following Japan's defeat in World War II, but others remained. Many are believed to have died during the war.

It is unclear how many people were mobilized for forced labor and died. Some civic groups claim the number of conscripts goes up to a million or more.

With the remains, the representatives are due to come back on Sept. 18. A funeral will follow on the next day at the Seoul Plaza.

About a thousand people, including Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, the bereaved families as well as civic groups will participate in the funeral, the group official said.

"The last 18 years of efforts by civilians finally got results," said Chung Byung-ho, the head of Steppingstone for Peace.

"We hope this could contribute to bringing a brighter future to east Asia." (Yonhap)