Korea Heritage Service Administrator Huh Min answers lawmakers' questions during a parliamentary audit of the agency and its affiliated institutions by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Oct. 8.NEWS1
Korea's heritage agency was unaware that China had spent more than a year laying the groundwork for a Unesco World Heritage bid for sites from Balhae, an ancient Korean kingdom, the agency's head admitted at a parliamentary audit Thursday.
China has long claimed that Goguryeo (37 B.C. to A.D. 668) and Balhae (698-926) were local regimes established by ethnic minorities within China's own history. Balhae spanned what is now northern North Korea, northeastern China and parts of the Russian Far East.
Last year, the government of China's Jilin Province had included a proposal to seek Unesco World Heritage designation for Balhae fortress sites and ancient tombs in an official document, according to documents disclosed by Rep. Bae Hyun-jin of the opposition People Power Party during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee.
In January, the provincial government also launched a 1.35 million yuan ($201,300) project to draw up a strategy for the Unesco application.
When Bae asked whether the Korea Heritage Service was aware of the moves, Administrator Huh Min apologized.
“We are not yet aware of them,” Huh said.
The agency also said it had taken no specific measures regarding Goguryeo and Balhae heritage sites in China over the past year.
“It is an extremely serious problem that a government agency was unaware of information that could be found through a simple internet search,” Bae said. “The issue has not even been discussed by the intergovernmental consultative body. Is the Lee Jae Myung administration trying to avoid dealing with China?”
The ruling Democratic Party Rep. Lee Jae-jung, chair of the parliamentary committee, also criticized the agency's position that it would respond only after China formally advanced the nomination process and called the approach complacent.
A tunnel at the Sado Mine in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on Nov. 25, 2024NEWS1
“Once the wording of a nomination and its historical interpretation are settled, they are difficult to change,” Lee said, citing Japan's Sado Island Gold Mines.
The mines on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, which produced gold and silver for centuries, were converted to supply Japan's war effort during World War II. More than 1,500 Koreans are reported to have been forced to work there from 1940 to 1945, during Japan's colonial rule of Korea.
The mines were added to the World Heritage list in July 2024 after Seoul dropped its opposition in exchange for Tokyo's pledge to reflect the full history of the site, including forced labor, which Seoul has since said Japan has not fully honored.
Lee urged the agency to monitor Chinese research and build a body of evidence and arguments explaining Balhae's historical background and the significance of its cultural heritage before the nomination process advances.
The committee chair also called for communication with international experts, including those at the International Council on Monuments and Sites, and for the preparation of materials supporting the sites' “outstanding universal value,” a key criterion for Unesco World Heritage designation.
Huh cited a shortage of personnel responsible for overseas heritage affairs but acknowledged the scale of the work ahead.
“There is so much we need to do, including addressing the Northeast Project,” Huh said. “We will draw up a detailed plan and report back.”
The Northeast Project, a Chinese state-sponsored research program that ran from 2002 to 2007, has been criticized in Korea as an attempt to appropriate Korean history.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
