Bae Hyun-jin slams China's push to list Balhae sites as World Heritage; Korea's cultural agency says it was unaware

China has been mobilizing a central government research institute to develop a strategy for listing Balhae-era sites as UNESCO World Heritage sites — yet South Korea's Cultural Heritage Administration was unaware of the effort, a parliamentary audit revealed Thursday. More than a year has passed since a Chinese provincial government formally announced the plan in an official document, but the issue has not been raised even in a pan-government consultative body, drawing criticism over the adequacy of Seoul's response.

People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, raised the issue at a national audit of the Cultural Heritage Administration on Thursday, presenting official documents from the Jilin Provincial Government alongside materials related to a project to establish a strategy for seeking World Heritage listing of Balhae sites.

According to the documents Bae disclosed, the Jilin Provincial Government announced in an official document in July last year its plan to apply for UNESCO World Heritage designation for "Balhae kingdom fortress and tomb sites."

Then, in January this year, the province launched a 1.3525 million yuan ($202,000) project to draw up a strategic plan for the World Heritage application. The project was carried out by the China Cultural Heritage Academy, a specialized heritage research institute under China's central government.

The moves show that China has progressed from formally announcing a provincial-level plan to actively developing a concrete strategy through a central government institution.

The Cultural Heritage Administration, however, was found to have been unaware of these developments. At the national audit Thursday, Cultural Heritage Administration Commissioner Heo Min said, when asked whether the agency had been tracking China's push to list the Balhae sites: "I apologize. We have not been able to do so yet."

The agency had also told Bae's office that over the past year, heritage sites related to Goguryeo and Balhae located in China had not been raised as an issue internally, and that no separate response measures had been taken.

No discussion has taken place at the pan-government level either. The UNESCO World Heritage Liaison Council — which includes the Cultural Heritage Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — has discussed issues related to Japan's Sado Island gold mine, but China's push to list the Balhae sites was never placed on the agenda.

"It is an extremely serious problem that a national institution like the Cultural Heritage Administration failed to confirm something that anyone could find with a simple internet search," Bae said. "This issue has not even been addressed in the pan-government consultative body — is the Lee Jae Myung government trying to avoid China-related issues?" she added.