Seoul City Hall plans to assess the condition of 52 major statues, including that of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin on Gwanghwamun Plaza, using an endoscope to check their hollow interiors.

The plan was drawn up after some of the statues were found to be in poor condition. Currently they are washed once or twice a year without any restoration work being carried out.

Some statues apparently had cracks and patches of corrosion, which could pose potential health hazards, as well as blighting the landscape.

City Hall will begin repair work with the statue of Admiral Yi, the Joseon Kingdom military leader who destroyed a much stronger Japanese invasion fleet.

Created in 1968 by the late sculptor Kim Se-Jung, Yi's statue, a key landmark in the capital, has recently been cleaned with its surface buffed. However, Seoul city officials admitted that a check on its structural integrity had not been carried out.

Last December, a group of experts advised the city government to conduct a detailed scientific inspection of the statue, noting that one was long overdue.

Seoul plans to carry out a visual recording of the inside of the hollow statue early this year. "An endoscope will be introduced through a small hole drilled into the statue to see what its condition inside is in," said an official in charge of the project. "This will enable us to decide on the precise method and extent of maintenance required."

He also said that the city will produce a specialized manual on statue maintenance that will be used as a reference in all other repair projects scheduled after the work on the statue of Yi."It is truly a significant job because we are taking part in the preservation of our cultural heritage that will be passed down to future generations," said another official.

Lee Tae-woo, a Korea Times intern, contributed to this article. ― ED.