UNESCO World Heritage Committee Holds Annual Session in Busan, Addressing Nominations and Japan's Sado Mine

Thousands of global delegates will gather in Busan on Sunday as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee opens its annual session for the first time in the country.

Around 3,000 participants from 196 member states, international organizations and non-governmental entities, are expected to attend the 10-day meeting at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in the port city, some 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Key figures scheduled to attend include UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany, Assistant Director-General for Culture Nayef Al-Fayez and Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the World Heritage Center.

It marks the first time South Korea has hosted the meeting since joining the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 1988.

UNESCO's key decision-making body for cultural and natural heritage, the committee meets each year to review nominations for inscription, assess the conservation status of listed sites and discuss broader policy issues related to the convention.

The 48th session will be chaired by Lee Byong-hyun, a former South Korean ambassador to UNESCO, in line with the customary practice of the host country presiding over the meeting.

The opening ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. with cultural performances. K-pop star G-Dragon is expected to attend the ceremony in his capacity as the meeting's honorary ambassador. Plenary sessions are scheduled from July 20-29.

The committee will review 33 proposals -- 30 new nominations and three requests to extend or modify existing World Heritage listings.

Among them is a proposed extension of South Korea's "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats" site, which would add four coastal wetlands to the property inscribed in 2021.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the committee's advisory body on natural heritage, has recommended approval of the extension, which is typically endorsed by the committee.

The committee is also expected to discuss a draft decision on Japan's implementation of follow-up measures for the Sado mine World Heritage site.

The draft recommends that Japan take further steps to adequately reflect the mine's "whole history" regarding the wartime mobilization of Korean laborers.

More than 1,500 Koreans were mobilized to work at the mine during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Once known for its gold production, the complex was later used to produce war supplies for the Japanese imperial army during World War II.

Japan promised to thoroughly convey the history of the forced conscription of Koreans in line with UNESCO's recommendations when the site was added to the World Heritage list in 2024, but the draft decision notes Tokyo's related efforts remain insufficient.

The draft decision is likely to be adopted during the 48th session unless member states object. While the recommendation is binding within UNESCO's follow-up framework, its limited enforceability leaves it unclear how fully Japan will comply.

Also drawing attention is whether the session will adopt a "Busan declaration," which would introduce "collaboration" as an additional strategic objective alongside the committee's existing five "C" priorities for the effective implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

The five are credibility, conservation, capacity-building, communication and community. The proposed addition reflects growing calls within UNESCO to strengthen international cooperation in addressing the increasingly complex challenges facing heritage sites, including climate change, according to Seoul officials.