1. The 41st session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) took place in Krakow, Poland, from July 2 to 12, bringing together some 2,000 people from the 21 member states of the WHC. The delegation from the Republic of Korea was led by Ambassador to UNESCO Lee Byong-hyun and comprised of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Heritage Administration, as well as civilian experts.

2. On July 3, with regard to the inscription of Japan's Meiji industrial sites on the World Heritage List during the 39th WHC session in 2015, Ambassador Lee urged Japan to take tangible follow-up measures and thereby make good on its pledges. The delegates from twelve out of the 21 member states of the WHC rendered support to Ambassador Lee or made remarks to similar effect.

° Japan’s head delegate to the meeting, Ambassador to UNESCO Kuni Sato, mentioned that the Japanese government respects the recommendations made by the WHC at its 39th session and will implement its pledge to establish an information center and to take other appropriate measures, with its National Conservation Committee setting an interpretive strategy in an effort to write a progress report to be submitted by December 1, 2017.

3. On July 5, the ROK delegation hosted an academic seminar on “world heritage and peace: heritage restoration and interpretation.”

° Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Choi Jong-moon delivered welcoming remarks, in which he brought attention to the pledge made by the Japanese government at the time of the inscription of Japan's Meiji industrial sites in 2015 to take appropriate measures in honor of the Korean and other victims; and voiced hope that the Japanese government will learn a lesson and take implications from the seminar with regard heritage restoration and interpretation.

° The seminar held in the presence of some 180 people is seen to have served as an opportunity to highlight the importance of heritage interpretation and to shed new light on its significance -- building peace in the face of negative history in the course of restoring heritage destroyed during past wars and colonial occupations.

4. During the session, after reviewing 33 candidates for inscription, the WHC added 22 properties -- 18 cultural and three natural -- to the World Heritage Lists. With those new additions counted in, 832 cultural, 206 natural and 35 mixed properties, 1,073 in total, in 167 countries are currently on the World Heritage Lists.

° Some of the new additions to the Lists are Kulangsum, a historic international settlement, and Qinghai Hoh Xil in China; the historic city of Ahmadabad in India; Tarnowskie Góry, lead-silver-zinc mine and its underground water management system, in Poland; and Asmara, a modernist city of Africa, in Eritrea.


* unofficial translation