Gov't makes contract with UNESCO for protecting world heritage

(ATTN: UPDATES with Seoul's plan to push for listing Arirang as UNESCO's intangible world heritage in last four paras)
SEOUL, June 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has signed an agreement with the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for expanding its role in protecting world heritage in the Asia-Pacific region, the government said on Thursday.
Since 2000, the government has been providing financial support to North Korea's efforts to preserve the ancient mural paintings from the Koguryo period (37 B.C.-A.D. 668) that are located in the suburbs of Pyongyang indirectly through UNESCO.
Under the agreement signed at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris Wednesday, Seoul will pay more to support underdeveloped countries' preparations to get their cultural assets listed as world heritage and to preserve existing world heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.
The move came as the existing contract with UNESCO over the preservation of the Koguryo tomb murals is set to expire later this year, Seoul's Cultural Heritage Administration dealing with the world heritage affairs said in a statement.
Also on Thursday, Culture Minister Choung Byoung-gug vowed to push for collecting the entire regional variations of the popular Korean folk song "Arirang" and having them listed as UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by next year.
Choung made the comment in response to China's recent designation of a regional variation of Arirang in the ethnic Korean community in Yanbian, a border area with strong links to Korea, as the country's national intangible cultural heritage.
"Arirang of the ethnic Koreans in Yanbian is just a part of Korea's Arirang," the minister told reporters.
Choung said it is "a bit absurd" that the Chinese government listed the Korean folk song as its own cultural heritage.
sshim@yna.co.kr