Busan is good

Busan Metropolitan City Announces Winners of the Wartime Capital Busan Competition

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that at 10:00 a.m. on December 4, an awards ceremony was held in Small Conference Room 2 on the 12th floor of City Hall to recognize eight outstanding papers selected through the “8th Wartime Capital Busan Paper Competition” and six outstanding works from the “2025 Wartime Capital Busan Video Content Competition.”

The paper competition, now in its eighth year, aims to foster the next generation of researchers specializing in topics related to “Wartime Capital Busan” and to broaden the overall research base.

This year’s video content competition was newly introduced to enhance public interest in Wartime Capital Busan and to expand opportunities for citizen participation in municipal promotion. The selected videos will be used to build public engagement and support promotional activities.

Competitions were held in March and July, respectively. For the paper competition, entries went through a three-stage review process consisting of a research proposal evaluation, a written review, and an oral examination. Ultimately, eight papers were selected: two from the student/general citizen category and six from the professional researcher category. The content competition also underwent internal and external expert reviews and a public evaluation, through which six outstanding entries were finalized.

In the paper competition, the work titled “The Process of Refugee Movement to Wartime Capital Busan” by Kwon Oh-hyun, Kang Mun-gyeong, and Kim Won-jae of Kyungsung University’s Department of History and Culture won the Excellence Award in the student and general citizen category.

The awardees stated, “Through this competition, we were able to better understand what Busan represented to refugees at the time. This served as an opportunity to deepen our interest in the history of Busan, including Wartime Capital Busan.”

In the professional researcher category, the Grand Prize was awarded to researcher Lee Jeong-in (Sungkyunkwan University) for the paper titled “Reexamining the Ethical Values of Wartime Capital Busan.”

The awardee commented, “This competition allowed me to directly explore the heritage of Wartime Capital Busan. I gained a deep appreciation for the countless hours and efforts devoted by many Busan studies scholars to documenting and advancing this field. I hope that many more people will pay attention to these accumulated achievements.”

The Excellence Award and Encouragement Awards were respectively presented to researcher Kim Jeong-eun (Silla University) and to Kim Sol (Pungyang Elementary School), Kim Nam-seok (Pukyong National University), Choi Won-woo·Jang Hyeon-jin·Yang Su-yeon (Dong-Eui University), and Kim Hyun (Daegu University). These works were evaluated as promising studies with strong potential for future research.

Although no Grand Prize was awarded in this year’s student/general citizen category, the competition showcased the potential of emerging scholars conducting in-depth studies on diverse topics related to Wartime Capital Busan.

In the content competition, the winners were:
• Grand Prize: Kim Geon-hee
• Excellence Awards: Han Seung-o, Kang Gyeong-hye
• Encouragement Awards: Shin Min-gyu, Kim Nam-hwa, Kim Hyeon-ji·Hwang Su-won·Kang Chae-won

Kim Geon-hee’s video, “My Grandmother’s Diary of Wartime Capital Busan,” was selected as the Grand Prize winner for its emotive storytelling and relatable approach to understanding the history of Wartime Capital Busan. The awardee said, “I am grateful to everyone involved in organizing this competition, and I hope this contributes to sharing and preserving Busan’s valuable history and memories.”

Jo Yu-jang, Director of the Culture Bureau, stated, “Following the selection of Wartime Capital Busan for the National Heritage Administration’s Tentative List for UNESCO World Heritage inscription this November, we are now one step closer to achieving World Heritage status. We will continue offering opportunities for participation to foster the interest and involvement of both researchers and citizens in Wartime Capital Busan. We hope these efforts will serve as a strong foundation for activating related research and advancing the inscription process. In addition to this competition, we will further promote Wartime Capital Busan through various citizen-participation programs.”