North Korean Taekwondo nears UNESCO inscription; South Korea faces hurdles with both standalone and extended bids

[Financial News] Taekwondo, for which North Korea applied two years before South Korea, has been recommended for inscription on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. With North Korea a step closer to a standalone inscription, the South Korean government has kept open the possibility of both standalone and extended inscriptions. If it pursues a standalone inscription, it will have to wait its turn for review; if it opts for an extended inscription, it will need North Korea’s consent.
According to the Korea Heritage Service on the 5th, the Evaluation Body under UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage recommended that North Korea’s application, “Traditional martial art of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Taekwon‐Do,” be added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The final decision on inscription will be made at the 21st session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which will be held in Xiamen, China, from the 30th through December 5. If inscription is confirmed, North Korea’s intangible cultural heritage of humanity will rise to six items, including Ssireum and Pyongyang naengmyeon.
North Korea submitted its application in March 2024. South Korea applied on March 31 this year to inscribe “Taekwondo: The Training Culture of Korea’s Dojang Communities,” but it was not included among the applications reviewed this time. South Korea’s application focused on a mode of transmission in which some trainees learn skills and etiquette at dojangs, go on to become instructors, and teach the next generation. Following the 2018 precedent in which the two Koreas’ separately submitted applications for Ssireum were combined and jointly inscribed, the government explored the possibility of a joint Taekwondo inscription as well.
The Korea Heritage Service said on the 5th that it had consulted with the Ministry of Unification and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had been asking UNESCO officials to support a joint inscription by the two Koreas. Earlier, on the 2nd, Korea Heritage Service head Heo Min wrote on social media that, given inter-Korean relations and other factors, a joint inscription would be difficult to achieve in practice. An extended inscription would add South Korea’s transmission community to the same entry after North Korean Taekwondo is first added to the list. Since consent from the North Korean authorities and the existing transmission community is required, inter-Korean talks must make progress before follow-up procedures can begin.
The review schedule is an obstacle to a standalone inscription. According to the Korea Heritage Service, countries that have already inscribed multiple elements, like South Korea, typically have one standalone application reviewed every two years. After hanji this year, South Korea is pursuing the inscription of ginseng culture in 2028. If the current schedule and review cycle remain in place, the standalone review of South Korean Taekwondo could be pushed back to 2030.
However, North Korea’s earlier inscription would not give it exclusive rights to Taekwondo. South Korea first inscribed Arirang and kimjang culture, after which North Korea also added them to the list separately. The Korea Heritage Service plans to continue pursuing a standalone or extended inscription for South Korean Taekwondo, regardless of the final outcome of North Korea’s application.
Meanwhile, the Evaluation Body recommended inscription of South Korea’s application, “Traditional knowledge and skills of hanji-making and cultural practices.” Of the 59 applications for the Representative List reviewed this time, 56 were recommended for inscription and three were recommended for referral for additional information. South Korea submitted an application to inscribe hanji culture in 2024 and provided supplementary materials last year. The application described the technique of making paper from paper mulberry fibers and the village tradition of passing it down through reciprocal labor exchange. If inscription is confirmed at the Xiamen meeting, hanji culture will become South Korea’s 24th item of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
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