Word: seoul
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...roof - which is all but waterproof - while the fire took hold below. The firefighters say they were told by the Cultural Heritage Administration, a body charged with the care of the nation's national treasures, to temper their aggression in fighting the fire, in order to make sure Seoul's oldest wooden structure was left intact. The administration is refuting this claim, saying it instructed firefighters to do whatever was necessary to get the fire under control. On Tuesday, the head of the Cultural heritage Administration, Yoo Hong Joon, tendered his resignation, saying he would "take responsibility" for the blaze...
...Experts are baffled over why authorities failed to protect the historic building, given Korea's wooden and other historical landmarks have been easy targets for disgruntled citizens in recent years. Chae, the suspected arsonist, was convicted in 2006 for setting fire to Seoul's Changgyeong Palace, a world heritage site, but received an 18-month suspended sentence. Another historical landmark, an 18th-century command post at Suwon City's Hwasong Fortress, was also set ablaze in 2006. "There is nothing more flammable than traditional Asian buildings," says Bartholomew...
...Critics of Seoul's lackadaisical approach to conservation point out that Japan, another country with many historical wooden structures, has numerous measures in place to protect its national treasures, including sophisticated sprinkler systems. But money is an issue: Korea's preservation efforts are underfunded and "not enough attended to," says David Mason, a professor of Korean Tourism at Kyung Hee University. And low overall rates of vandalism in Korea could contribute to a sense of complacency over protecting its cultural sites. "Teenagers aren't brought up to see vandalism as cool form of self expression," Mason says, "and adults would...
...most esoteric of topics. For those interested in early Korean history, however, even Harvard’s seemingly unlimited academic resources have offered little in the way of a definitive curriculum—until last week, when the Northeast Asian History Foundation, a nonprofit research group based in Seoul, South Korea, announced that it would be donating $1 million to Harvard’s Korea Institute over a five-year period. The grants will be used to fund the Early Korea Project, an interdisciplinary inquiry into the premodern history of the Korean Peninsula. The aims of the Early Korea Project...
...Korean ancient history to provide suggestions for the future direction of the country’s interactions with its neighbors. “A strong, viable relationship is not founded on the liquidation of history, but by building viable trust,” said Yongdeok Kim, president of the Seoul-based foundation, which will dispense the grant over the five years to the Early Korea Project. The grant will fund a series of workshops and publications, including an academic journal presenting Korean scholarship in English. The Early Korea Project—an initiative under the Korea Institute at the Center...