By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Choe Kwang-shik, director of the National Museum of Korea, said Thursday that entrance into national museums will soon be free of charge for all visitors.
Choe, 55, who was inaugurated as the new director of the museum Saturday, told reporters that the museum will abolish admission charges starting mid-April on a trial basis. The plan will then be fully implemented at 11 national museums in provincial areas from May.
``The museum will not charge entrance fees as part of efforts to help more people enjoy Korea's culture and heritage,'' said Choe.
He said, however, that visitors will still be required to get passes at the ticket boxes to prevent a sudden influx of visitors.
``The abolishment will bring the museums much closer to the general public, and more and more people will become interested in them,'' he said.
Exhibitions held by the national museum will be free but some special exhibitions, co-hosted with foreign agencies, may have entrance fees.
Concerning protests from private museums, he said that these will be discussed with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to seek ways to support them.
Since President Lee Myung-bak's transition team raised the issue of free admission, private museums have opposed the plan, saying it will deal a serious blow to them.
``I expect private museums will also benefit from the new plan as this will attract more people to museums and spread museum culture. Private museums are different from the national museums; they are special museums that can still draw visitors,'' he said.
To attract more foreign visitors, the director said that it is seeking cooperation with tourism agencies to include the museum on tours.
The museum has been visited by only a small number of foreign tourists since it relocated in 2005 from Gyeongbokgung to Yongsan, which is not near tourist attractions.
Choe, who specialized in Korean history at Korea University, has been involved in various academic activities.
He has expanded his interest to the history of Goguryeo due to the Northeast Project, a Chinese academic project to reexamine the ancient history of the region.
He is one of founders of the Goguryeo Research Foundation, which was absorbed by the Northeast History Foundation.