1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korean National Commission for UNESCO co-hosted the 2nd International Conference on World Heritage Interpretation in Seoul on November 27.

o In his opening remarks, Director-General for Cultural Affairs Lee Eun-yong stressed that the Japanese government needs to swiftly and faithfully implement the steps it promised to the international community when its wartime industrial facilities were inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 39th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in July 2015.

2. The conference featured lectures and presentations by world heritage experts from home and abroad, and a general discussion session. Among the experts who participated in the conference were Director of the Liberation War Museum in Bangladesh Mofidul Hoque, director of a network in Japan to find out the truth about forced mobilization Nakata Mitsunobu, Chief Executive Officer of GML Heritage in Australia Sharon Veale, director and curator Rod Beattie of the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, and Professor of Politics of Seoul National University Jo Dong-Joon. The conference was also attended by about 100 people interested in world heritage.

o The experts stressed that it is important to devise strategies to interpret heritage related to the history of disputes and negative history in order to overcome conflict and promote the development of mankind and civilizations, and that such heritage interpretation strategies are consistent with the purpose of UNESCO’s world heritage system, which helps past, present and future generations to share outstanding universal value.

3. The ROK has played a leadership role in the area by holding seminars on world heritage interpretation on the sidelines of the first International Conference on World Heritage Interpretation (November 2, 2016, Seoul), and the 40th (July 13, 2016, Istanbul) and 41st (July 5, 2017, Krakow, Poland) sessions of the World Heritage Committee.

o As a country leading discussions on world heritage, the ROK will continue to make contributions in the area, including by holding the conference every year.


* unofficial translation