World Heritage Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting Held in Andong ... Decision on Registration of Naebanggasa and Samguk Yusa

Promotion for the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Committee Meeting.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-sun] The Korea Studies Advancement Center (Director Jeong Jong-seop) announced that the "9th General Assembly of the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Committee" will be held for three days from the 24th to the 26th at the Andong International Convention Center.

This meeting was decided when the Korea Studies Advancement Center hosted the Secretariat and the 9th General Assembly of the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Committee in February this year, and since the Asia-Pacific Secretariat was established at the Korea Studies Advancement Center in July, it has been preparing the general assembly together with Gyeongbuk Province and Andong City.

At this general assembly, the registration of ‘Naebanggasa,’ jointly submitted by the Korea Studies Advancement Center, and ‘Samguk Yusa,’ which has been promoted for registration at the request of Gunwi County, will also be decided.

The UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Committee is a regional committee of the Memory of the World program established by UNESCO. Due to the nature of documentary heritage, there are records that have influenced the entire world, but there are also records that have influenced specific regions worldwide. For this reason, among the UNESCO registered heritage systems, only the Memory of the World program stipulates having international, regional, and national registers.

The international register is directly operated by the International Advisory Committee running the Memory of the World program, while the regional registers are managed by forming regional committees. Currently, active regional register activities are taking place in regions including Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa.

Due to COVID-19 and the establishment of a new Memory of the World process, the 9th General Assembly, held for the first time in four years, has received participation applications from over 80 Memory of the World experts from more than 25 countries both online and offline.

In particular, about 55 foreign experts from 20 countries will visit Andong in person, and more than 40 domestic Memory of the World experts from the Cultural Heritage Administration, UNESCO Korea Committee, UNESCO Memory of the World Korea Committee, and the International Center for Documentary Heritage will also participate.

The three-day general assembly starting on the 24th will include an academic conference, the Secretariat plaque ceremony, discussions on the direction of Memory of the World activities and country reports, and decisions on the registration of 13 items on the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific regional register. Additionally, the schedule includes visits to Andong’s World Heritage sites such as Dosan Seowon and Hahoe Village, as well as the Korea Studies Advancement Center, which houses Memory of the World heritage.

On the first day, the 24th, academic presentations by experts including Paxson Vanda from UNESCO headquarters, who oversees the Memory of the World program, will be held, and in the afternoon, the plaque ceremony for the MOWCAP Secretariat, which began operations at the Korea Studies Advancement Center on July 1, will take place.

Also, a tour of four UNESCO Memory of the World international and regional registered items held by the Korea Studies Advancement Center will be conducted. Through this, it is planned to share with overseas experts attending the general assembly that the Gyeongbuk region, including Andong, is the so-called "center of Memory of the World heritage."

On the second day, the 25th, the direction of the rapidly changing Memory of the World program will be shared, and reports on country-specific activities will be received.

On the third day, the core agenda of the general assembly, the final registration decision for the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific regional register, will be made. The registration status of 13 items, which have passed preliminary national reviews and the pre-review by the Registration Sub-Committee (RSC), will be decided. On this day, the registration of ‘Naebanggasa,’ evidence of Korean women’s autonomous literary activities applied for by Gyeongbuk, and ‘Samguk Yusa,’ a representative Korean ethnographic record, will be determined.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.