By Kim Rahn

South Korea has dropped its plan to make a joint request with North Korea for UNESCO to recognize “Arirang,” a traditional folk song, and has made a solo bid instead, a government official said Sunday.

An official of the Cultural Heritage Administration said an application had been submitted to UNESCO early this month to recognize Arirang as World Heritage before the June 6 closing date for applications.

The measure comes after China designated the Korean song as its own intangible cultural heritage last year, saying it was a folk song of an ethnic Korean group living in the northeastern part of the country.

“We initially planned to make the registration together with North Korea. However, we couldn’t contact the North for the issue after the former leader Kim Jong-il died late last year. So we applied on our own,” the official said.

When being inaugurated last September, Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik said, “People worry that we may have Arirang stolen by China. It seems we’ve neglected the song because we’ve thought it belongs to Korea without a doubt. We’ll find various versions of Arirang across the country. North Korea also has many types of Arirang, so we’ll seek to register the folk song with UNESCO in cooperation with the North.” As such, some say a solo bid may have less chance of success.

Arirang has diverse variations across the Korean Peninsula. In 2009, the administration applied for the registration of “Jeongseon Arirang,” a variation sung in the mountainous area of Jeongseon, Gangwon Province.

The administration has now applied for UNESCO listing of all versions of Arirang in South Korea.

Asked whether Arirang in North Korea could be included later in UNESCO’s cultural heritage if the South’s move succeeds, the official said the chance was very low.

“We have 40 royal tombs of the Joseon Kingdom registered as World Heritages. There are many ancient tombs in North Korea, but they are not recognized as World Heritages. The situation may be the same for Arirang.”

The application is a belated response to China’s registration of Arirang as national intangible cultural heritage last August. But China didn’t apply for Arirang’s UNESCO registration this time.

“If South Korea’s Arirang is listed, another application for Arirang, either by North Korea or China, won’t be possible under UNESCO’s current policy,” the official said.

The international organization will make a decision on the South’s application in November.

Alongside that, the government is seeking to register the folk song as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is impossible according to the current law.

“The law allows listing of intangible cultural assets when there are specific successors or skill holders. But Arirang doesn’t have such holders. It is just sung by all South Koreans. So we’re seeking to revise the law,” he said.