“Wartime Capital Sites” registered with the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List
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□ The city of Busan announced that the “Wartime Capital Sites”, which the city had been working to register as a World Heritage Site since 2015, was finally posted on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ official website on October 17.
○ The “Wartime Capital Sites” were officially registered for the first time in Korea with the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in the ‘Modern Heritage’ category on May 16.
○ The “Wartime Capital Sites” were posted on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ official website (https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6668/), which is currently available for viewing, five months after their official registration.
□ The “Wartime Capital Sites” were utilized amid the urgent and pressing situation of the Korean War, the first hot war of the Cold War of the 20th century. As exceptional evidence showcasing how the city functioned as the wartime capital for 1023 days, the sites comprise nine properties that performed wartime capital functions to maintain the government and to oversee refugees and international cooperation.
○ The nine properties include ▲Gyeongmudae (Presidential Residence of the Provisional Capital) ▲the Temporary Capitol Building (Government Building of the Busan Provisional Capital) ▲the Ami-dong Tombstones Refugees’ Residential Area in Seo-gu (3); ▲the Central Meteorological Service (formerly the Busan Meteorological Station); ▲the US Embassy-cum-US Information Service (now the Busan Modern & Contemporary History Museum); ▲Busan Port’s Pier 1 in Jung-gu (3); ▲Camp Hialeah (now Busan Citizens Park) in Busanjin-gu (1); ▲the UN Cemetery ▲the Uam-dong Refugees’ Cowshed Dwellings in Nam-gu (2).
○ These heritage sites of the former wartime capital of Busan, were recognized for their authenticity and integrity, which are among the criteria for nominations of world heritage sites and have satisfied the “Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)” requirement.
□ Following the approval by the World Heritage Subcommittee of the Cultural Heritage Administration during deliberations of their tentative list registration in December of last year, the city subsequently provided additional application documents. These were prepared with the advice of experts and were reported to the World Heritage Subcommittee of the Cultural Heritage Administration. Once the application was translated into English and edited, it was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Center for the Tentative List. As a result of these efforts, the city secured the great achievement of having the “Wartime Capital Sites” registered with the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.
□ Some related procedures still remain for the final UNESCO World Heritage registration. A supplementary study is required to meet the registration requirements with efforts to preserve individual heritage sites and maintain the continuous attention of citizens and related agencies.
○ The remaining domestic and overseas procedures, include the Cultural Heritage Administration’s selection of preferred registration lists, preliminary deliberations, and the selection of candidates and those eligible for a registration application with UNESCO’s field inspection.
□ The city of Busan commented that it would continue to work to prepare all the procedures to push forward with the registration and form a consensus with citizens in the future. It will also do its best to have the “Wartime Capital Sites” registered with the UNESCO World Heritage List, in active cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Administration.
