Korea will seek to have a series of traditional Confucian schools and temples with high cultural values win UNESCO world heritage status, in an effort to improve the country's image, a presidential council reported Friday.
The Presidential Council on National Branding said in a report to President Lee Myung-bak it will try to get nine Confucian schools recognized as world heritage sites by 2014, and a series of Buddhist temples by 2015.
Prospects of their listing are good as UNESCO, which stands for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. listed the nine Confucian schools, called "seowon" in Korean, as provisional world heritage assets early last month. The nine include the best-known such schools, including Sosu Seowon and Dosan Seowon.
The temples the council considers possible world heritage sites include Tongdo Temple and Haein Temple.
The council also reported it will train tour guides with a deep knowledge of the country's cultural assets and fluency in foreign languages. This year, a total of 90 such guides will start training, 30 each to be fluent in English, Japanese and Chinese, the council said.
"It is time for us to pay attention to our cultural assets," Lee said during the meeting, according to presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha. "Getting recognition not only in economy, but also in culture and sports is important. This is a way to becoming an advanced nation." (Yonhap)