The Korea Heritage Service will prepare a list of cultural heritage it wants UNESCO to recognize starting next year, the state-run agency said Monday.
The preliminary list, shared internally, would serve as a pool of heritage for the Tentative Lists maintained by UNESCO. All nominations must be on the Tentative Lists for consideration.
“The reason we’re drawing up the internal list is for us to stay tuned to the latest trends in UNESCO nominations,” an agency official said. “UNESCO appears more interested in natural rather than cultural or intangible heritage these days.”
South Korea currently has 14 items on UNESCO’s Tentative Lists, a list first drawn up in 1994. The official added that any updates to the list would be made in 2026 at the earliest, after a year of screening heritage the agency believes holds new relevance.
The screening process, the agency official added, would keep Korea’s Tentative Lists up-to-date. Hanyangdoseong, known as the Seoul City Wall, is one of the 14 potential nominations on the list, and the agency expects to receive UNESCO recognition by 2027.
This week, UNESCO will decide whether to add “jang,” or the traditional Korean ways of making fermented pastes and sauces, to its list of intangible cultural heritage. It was approved for nomination by UNESCO’s 12-member Evaluation Body in November.
The 24-country Intergovernmental Committee’s final decision will be made public in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Tuesday, during its six-day gathering that started Monday.
