Gwangsan-gu's Koryoin Historical Artifacts Make Swift Progress Toward UNESCO World Heritage Registration

Gwangju Wolgok Goryeo Culture Center - International Records Heritage Center, Business Agreement

Kim Byung-hak, Director of Wolgok Goryeo Culture Center (right), and Cho Yoon-myung, Secretary-General of the UNESCO International Records Heritage Center, are holding a business agreement signing ceremony.
[Photo by Gwangsan-gu]

Wolgok Goryeo Culture Center (Director Kim Byung-hak), located in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Park Byung-gyu), has begun initial steps to register various forms of historical relics of the Koryoin as UNESCO World Documentary Heritage.

On the 19th, Gwangsan-gu announced that it signed a business agreement with the International Center for Documentary Heritage under UNESCO for the "Registration of Koryoin Historical Documentary Relics as UNESCO World Documentary Heritage." The signing ceremony took place at the International Center for Documentary Heritage in Cheongju, Chungbuk, upon the center's proposal.

The two institutions agreed to cooperate on ▲research, investigation, management, and overall utilization of Koryoin-related documentary heritage domestically and internationally ▲participation and activation of the Koryoin diaspora documentary discovery project ▲information sharing among Koryoin-related organizations, exhibitions, and publications.

Wolgok Goryeo Culture Center, which opened in May 2021 in the Goryoin village of Gwangsan-gu, houses a total of about 12,000 historical relics. Among them, there are approximately 9,000 handwritten manuscripts and records, including 23 pieces of native language cultural and artistic records that were registered as National Designated Records No. 13 in January 2020.

Gwangsan-gu plans to complete by September next year a project to archive (data preservation and digitization) and establish a cyber exhibition hall through the full digitalization of relics to preserve and expand the exhibition capacity of the Wolgok Goryeo Culture Center's relics.

Park Byung-gyu, Mayor of Gwangsan-gu, stated, "This agreement will be the first step in enhancing the historical significance and value of the numerous relics in the Koryoin village," adding, "Along with promoting the registration as World Documentary Heritage, we will do our best to establish Gwangsan-gu's Koryoin village as a leading historical tourism hub representing the Republic of Korea."

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