Serious 'Mismanagement' of Namhansanseong, a World Cultural Heritage Site

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Despite damage to the Namhansanseong fortress wall (yeojang), a nationally designated cultural heritage, regular inspections have been neglected, and overall management has been found to be poor, including discrepancies between the land registry classification and actual usage within the cultural heritage protection zone.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 16th that it conducted a comprehensive audit of the Gyeonggi Namhansanseong World Heritage Center in January and pointed out six issues, including the lack of systematic preservation and maintenance of the Namhansanseong fortress wall.

According to the audit results, the yeojang (女墻: a low wall built on top of the fortress wall to hide the body and attack enemies) of Namhansanseong has been undergoing repairs since 1975. The yeojang is constructed by filling soil between stones and plastering, making it easily damaged by moisture infiltration, so regular inspection and management are crucial to maintaining its condition.

However, the audit confirmed that despite significant damage to the yeojang, the Namhansanseong World Heritage Center does not conduct regular inspections or maintain inspection records. Additionally, it failed to establish annual implementation plans for the comprehensive maintenance plan required under the Cultural Heritage Protection Act.

Namhansanseong, designated as a national historic site, receives national funding from the Cultural Heritage Administration for repairs and maintenance. Over the past three years, the budget allocated for yeojang repairs was 660 million KRW, which is far below the 1.6 billion KRW proposed in the comprehensive maintenance plan, indicating the need for more active budget support from the Cultural Heritage Administration for heritage preservation management.

Furthermore, the province confirmed that the cultural heritage protection zone around the Namhansanseong Haenggung, also designated as a national historic site, is still registered in the land registry as farmland or forest land rather than as a historic site.

Field verification revealed that although the land registry classifies the land as farmland, actual usage differs, with buildings such as temples and restrooms installed and trails constructed. Four locations around Haenggung, totaling 54,149 square meters, were being used differently from their registered classification.

Accordingly, the province ordered the Namhansanseong World Heritage Center to establish a mid- to long-term comprehensive maintenance plan and annual implementation plans, conduct annual self-assessments and regular inspections of maintenance projects, and systematically manage the yeojang.

Additionally, to ensure efficient cultural heritage preservation and management of public property, the province issued an improvement order to change the land classification of 34 parcels totaling 14,704 square meters within the cultural heritage protection zone from farmland and forest land to historic site. This reclassification is expected to save approximately 316 million KRW in agricultural land conversion fees.

The province also identified and issued corrective and cautionary measures for issues such as negligence in registering and managing cultural heritage repair (supervision) reports, inadequate prior review of public construction project plans, improper acquisition and management of exhibition artifacts at the Namhansanseong History and Culture Center, and poor management of accounting tasks including cash management outside of income and expenditure.

Namhansanseong, located in Namhansanseong-myeon, Gwangju City, was designated as a national cultural heritage site on January 21, 1963, and was recognized for its high historical and cultural value by being listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in June 2014. The Gyeonggi Namhansanseong World Heritage Center established a 10-year comprehensive maintenance plan for Namhansanseong in 2019 in accordance with the Cultural Heritage Protection Act and is promoting repair and maintenance projects based on this plan.