‘Seowon’ seeks UNESCO heritage status

A group of nine ancient private Confucian academies in the country, called “Seowon” in Korean, will again try to gain registration as a UNESCO World Heritage early next year, an official at the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) here said Monday.

The decision was made a meeting of the CHA’s cultural assets committee earlier in the day, in which committee members have chosen Seowon again as a national candidate for UNESCO Heritage listing, the official said.

South Korea unsuccessfully applied for the registration in 2015, and voluntarily called off the application in April last year. In handing down a “return” judgment, the UNESCO International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) pointed out in its review that the Korean Confucian academies failed to show noticeable distinctive features in comparison with their Chinese and Japanese counterparts and that their surroundings were not included in cultural asset zones.