North Korea's Solo Taekwondo Bid Wins UNESCO Listing Recommendation: Final Decision in Xiamen on Nov. 30 as South Korea's Joint Bid Falls Through
The evaluation body of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage announced its review results on Nov. 5: "Traditional Martial Art of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — Taekwondo," submitted by North Korea alone, received a recommendation for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Such recommendations are normally adopted as they stand, and the bid is expected to be decided at the committee's 21st session, opening on Nov. 30 in Xiamen, China.
North Korea filed its solo application back in March 2024. South Korea, pursuing a joint inscription, submitted an application for joint and extended inscription only on March 31 this year. Korea Heritage Service chief Heo Min said on Nov. 2 that, given the state of inter-Korean relations and other conditions, a joint inscription was virtually impossible at this stage. If North Korea's solo inscription is confirmed, it will be the North's sixth solo listing, after Arirang (2014), kimchi-making (2015), Pyongyang naengmyeon noodles (2022) and traditional Korean dress customs (2024); ssireum wrestling was inscribed jointly by the two Koreas in 2018.
Criticism in South Korea has fallen on successive governments for responding too slowly: after North Korea's solo filing in March 2024, the Yoon Suk Yeol government took no effective action, and taekwondo's designation as a national intangible heritage item at home had long stalled amid scholarly disputes over its history and originality. The Korea Heritage Service also noted that a UNESCO inscription is not exclusive — Arirang was inscribed by the South in 2012 and separately by the North in 2014 — and that South Korea can still file its own taekwondo application in the future.
(Source: UNESCO)
Source: UNESCO
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：韩国跆拳道示范表演。照片：美国陆军（经 DVIDS 发布），公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A taekwondo demonstration in South Korea. Photo by the U.S. Army via DVIDS, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
