"Hosting the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Busan this July serves as a pivotal occasion to showcase Korea's advanced cultural capabilities and global leadership on the world stage. We expect this to widely promote the true essence of Korea's heritage, known as K-Heritage. The driving force behind K-Culture, which leads global culture, is undoubtedly K-Heritage."
President Lee Jae-myung made these remarks at the "48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee Preparation Status Briefing" held in Busan on May 27, throwing his support behind the Korea Heritage Service. Building on this assessment, the Korea Heritage Service, led by Administrator Heo Min, unveiled its "First-Year Achievements Under the People's Sovereignty Government" on Wednesday.
Under the banner of "One Year With the People: Captivating the World With K-Heritage and Transforming People's Lives," the Korea Heritage Service highlighted policy achievements in three areas: driving regional growth through K-tourism branding of national heritage; regulatory reform to maximize public benefits; and elevating Korea as a global cultural heritage powerhouse through the globalization of K-Heritage.
First, the agency assessed that national heritage has established itself as a key driver of regional growth through K-tourism. According to the Korea Heritage Service, royal palaces such as Gyeongbokgung have been branded as Korea's representative tourist attractions sought after by global visitors, drawing the largest number of visitors on record last year. As a result of successfully operating historical tourism programs that leverage the historical significance and appeal of royal palaces, including the Royal Culture Festival and the Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour, visitors to royal palaces and tombs surpassed 17.81 million in 2025, marking an all-time high. Of these, foreign visitors numbered 4.27 million, approximately seven times the figure from 2022, when palace visitor numbers had begun to recover from the COVID-19 downturn.
The upward trend continues this year. Boosted in part by the positive impact of BTS's performance at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 21, 5.45 million people visited through April 2026, up 12% from the same period last year, with foreign visitors rising 28% to 1.41 million.
Building on these results, the Korea Heritage Service launched the "National Heritage Visit Bridge" program this year to spread foreign tourists, who have been concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area, to regional destinations.
Through significant expansion of regional tourism programs such as the National Heritage Visit Campaign, Night Tours, World Heritage Festival, and media art, 6.71 million people visited regional national heritage sites in 2025, generating an estimated economic ripple effect of approximately 720 billion won and significantly contributing to regional economic revitalization, according to the analysis.
The agency also cited bold regulatory reform of national heritage as a key achievement that improved public convenience. Over the past year, the Korea Heritage Service has actively addressed inconveniences caused by complex regulations related to national heritage and implemented bold regulatory reform to support stable lives for the public. By fully operating the impact assessment system, the agency reviewed the impact on national heritage during the urban planning stage by local governments for large-scale development projects, enhancing administrative predictability. For general construction projects, buried heritage preservation plans and landscape impact reviews can now be conducted simultaneously.
To enhance the effectiveness of historical and cultural zone improvement projects, the agency established activity restriction zones and permission criteria reflecting the characteristics of improvement areas, and changed the approval authority for implementation plans from city and provincial governors to the Administrator of the Korea Heritage Service, shortening the time required for regulatory administrative procedures. In addition, a newly introduced public-private joint excavation site support team proactively consults and coordinates issues arising from large-scale national development projects and housing supply sites for swift resolution.
As a result of these active efforts, the number of development permit cases, including construction activities within national heritage regulation zones, fell sharply by 26% compared with the three-year average. The agency said the first quarter of this year also saw a 15% decline from the same period last year, dropping from 459 to 389 cases.
Third, the agency explained that it has emerged as a global cultural heritage powerhouse through the globalization of K-Heritage. For the first time in Korea, the "48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee" will be held in Busan this July. With Korea taking on the role of chair country—having risen to become the world's 11th-largest cultural heritage powerhouse with 60 inscribed properties following the successful inscription of the "Bangudae Petroglyphs" as a World Heritage site last year—this UNESCO World Heritage Committee is expected to serve as an occasion for Korea to leap forward as a true "Rule Maker" leading World Heritage policy in the international community.
The Korea Heritage Service plans to use this large-scale international event as a stepping stone to organically link UNESCO World Heritage sites across 51 regions nationwide, actively supporting regional tourism revitalization through these connections to maximize the value of K-Heritage.
K-Heritage's influence in the international community has also been further strengthened. During the restoration of the pylon at Egypt's Ramesseum temple, the discovery of hieroglyphs of Ramses II yielded academic data for identifying the construction sequence of structures within the temple. The agency has continued cooperation with various countries on heritage preservation, including the conservation of Saint-Denis Basilica (France), prevention of illicit trafficking of cultural heritage (Italy), and underwater relics excavation (Vietnam), spreading Korea's outstanding preservation capabilities and securing a bridgehead for technology exports and policy cooperation.
Meanwhile, the agency has actively pursued the repatriation of overseas Korean cultural heritage that was taken out during periods of national turmoil, fostering national pride. "Gwanwoldang," a Joseon royal shrine that returned from Japan last year after 100 years, is regarded as carrying significant meaning as a symbol of future cooperation for mutual prosperity beyond Korea-Japan tensions.
In February this year, three woodblocks including "Cheokam Seonsaeng Munjip"—part of the "Confucian Printing Woodblocks of Korea" inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register—were donated from the United States. The Korea Heritage Service plans to continue the repatriation of overseas Korean cultural heritage in cooperation with related institutions at home and abroad.
"The past year has been a meaningful period in which we created tangible achievements that the public can feel and breathed new vitality into regions through the revitalization of national heritage tourism and bold regulatory reform," Korea Heritage Service Administrator Heo Min said. "Going forward, we will swiftly pursue various policies and projects to ensure that national heritage—the root of our cultural powerhouse status and the source of K-Culture—extends into the future and across the world, contributing to elevating the national brand," the agency conveyed.
