▲ This photo provided by the Korea Heritage Service (KHS) shows the Mount. Baekak part of the Capital Fortifications of Hanyang. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- 

Fortifications built to defend Joseon’s capital Hanyang over some 600 years have been nominated for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Korea Heritage Service said Friday.

 

The heritage agency recently submitted a nomination dossier for the "Capital Fortifications of Hanyang" to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, following revisions made after an initial draft filed in September last year.

 

UNESCO will ask its advisory body, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), to evaluate the site’s historical and cultural values and carry out on-site inspections.

 

A final decision on inscription will be made at the World Heritage Committee’s session in July 2027. If approved, the "Capital Fortifications of Hanyang" would become South Korea’s 18th World Heritage site.

 

The nominated ensemble comprises key defensive works that illustrate the capital’s defensive system: Hanyangdoseong (the capital city wall), Bukhansanseong (a mountain fortress built as a contingency defense), and Tangchundaeseong (fortifications and storehouses designed to shelter people and sustain prolonged resistance).

 

Scholars highlight the site’s value for its organic connection of differently functioning fortification types — so-called "poguoksik" fortifications that follow ridgelines, valleys and hills — and for representing the creative continuation of East Asian ridge-line fort-building traditions and the apex of capital fortification development on the peninsula, the heritage agency said.

 

Last year ICOMOS’ preliminary assessment judged there was a possibility that the nomination could meet the World Heritage criterion of "Outstanding Universal Value" (OUV). The preliminary assessment process involves early-stage consultations with advisory bodies to improve the quality and completeness of a nomination.

 

This is effectively the second attempt to seek World Heritage status for Hanyang’s fortifications. Hanyangdoseong had been placed on South Korea’s tentative list in 2012 and earlier pushed for inscription, but authorities withdrew the nomination after ICOMOS advised against inscription in 2017. Bukhansanseong likewise failed to pass a tentative-list review in 2018.

 

Following the earlier reviews, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Goyang City — the local governments responsible for the sites — agreed with the Korea Heritage Service to submit a joint nomination that bundles Hanyangdoseong, Bukhansanseong and Tangchundaeseong together.

 

The re-nomination process was not without challenges. At a late domestic review stage, the Cultural Heritage Committee temporarily withheld approval pending improvements. Committee minutes requested clearer criteria and principles for defining the heritage and buffer zones, and called for systematic planning and legal measures to manage areas likely to face future development — steps intended to ensure protection of the core and surrounding zones proposed for inscription.

 

The nomination dossier was revised several times in response to UNESCO’s review comments. The World Heritage Centre’s feedback was relayed to local governments, and changes were made to explanations of the OUV, inscription conditions and the boundaries of the proposed property.

 

ICOMOS is expected to begin its formal evaluation of the dossier from March of this year through the first half of next year.

 

Since first inscribing "Jongmyo" and the "Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa" in 1995, South Korea now has 17 World Heritage properties — 15 cultural and two natural. Among matters due for decision at this year’s World Heritage Committee meeting in July in Busan is the potential second-phase inscription of the "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats Phase II," a site prized as a biological treasure.

 

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