National museum on Annals of Joseon Kingdom set to open

An opening ceremony for a national museum that stores and exhibits the Annals of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) takes place in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, Nov. 11, in this photo provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration. Yonhap

An opening ceremony for a national museum that stores and exhibits royal records of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom took place Saturday in the mountainous county of Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, where a royal archive for the ancient books has been located.

The opening ceremony took place at the National Museum of the Annals of the Joseon Kingdom, with the chief of the Cultural Heritage Administration, lawmakers and the governor and mayors of Gangwon and Pyeongchang in attendance, ahead of its official opening Sunday.

The museum will store and preserve more than 1,200 pieces of relevant artifacts, including 75 volumes of the Annals of the Joseon Kingdom and 82 volumes of the Uigwe, manuscripts for royal protocols.

The museum's opening comes 110 years after the Annals of the Joseon Kingdom, which chronicle the reigns of 25 kings during the dynasty's 472-year history, were taken out of the country in 1913 during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The books, along with key documents tracing the genealogy of the royal family, had previously been stored at a facility located at Mount Odae in Pyeongchang, 131 kilometers east of Seoul. (Yonhap)

A ceremony marking the return of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and Uigwe takes place at Woljeong Temple in this photo provided by the county office of Pyeongchang, Nov. 11. Yonhap