South Korea Opens K-Heritage House During UNESCO Session in Busan

President Lee Jae Myung delivered a speech at the opening ceremony on Sunday for the K-Heritage House that opened in Busan the next day during the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The occasion marked the first time South Korea has hosted the committee.

The 196 member states will begin voting on Friday to add sites to the World Heritage list and the World Heritage in Danger list.

Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, said the listings send a message to the world even without peacekeepers. “These sites are important, and everything must be done to prevent their destruction,” he stated. He added that safeguarding heritage helps traumatized communities rebuild.

Three sites are expected to be fast-tracked onto the World Heritage in Danger list. They include the archaeological site of Sebastia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, five castles in south Lebanon including the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif captured by Israeli troops in May, and the Boma-Badingilo grassland and woodland savannahs in South Sudan where one million animals migrate annually.

Additional candidates include the remains of Roman baths, a second-century triumphal arch and hippodrome in Tyre, Lebanon, the ancient Greek settlement of Tauric Chersonese in Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014, and Lake Baikal in Russia which contains 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater.

Approximately 1,200 sites are already on the World Heritage list.