By Kim Tong-hyung
Yoo Jin-ryong, Korea's minister of culture, sports and tourism, is in a tough spot.
Korea and Japan are locked in an increasingly ill-tempered feud over the ownership of a pair of Korean medieval Buddhist statues that were stolen by Korean thieves from a Japanese shrine in October last year.
Japan demands that the statues, both listed on the country's Important Cultural Properties, be returned. Korea, which recovered the statues in January this year, finds it relevant that the Tsushima-based shrine might have acquired these artifacts hundreds of years ago through a process that would be considered illegal today.
Whatever Yoo says about this acutely sensitive issue will be dissected to the ground and occasionally trigger emotional explosion. He can't talk passionately about the Korean claims to the statues when interpretations in international laws aren't clear-cut. But he can't afford to look less-than-passionate facing a public that considers retaining the statues as a matter of national pride.
Yoo was reminded of his difficult position in a meeting with the culture ministers of Japan and Chain during the weekend, when Japanese journalists took and ran with his comments and portrayed him as supporting the statues being returned to Japan. Yoo claimed his words were taken out of context, but that didn't keep an angry opposition lawmaker in Seoul calling for his head.
''What the minster said was that we needed to wait before our courts reach a final decision on the matter and that Korea would follow international laws on the return of stolen cultural assets,'' said a culture ministry official, adding that the issue over the statues wasn't officially a topic in Yoo's meeting with Japan's Hakubun Shimomura and China's Cai Wu, which produced a casual agreement on cultural exchange.
''It was essentially a theoretical reply (to Shimomura) and we feel it was inappropriate for such comments to be colored differently and made public without consent.''
Five men were arrested in Daejeon in January for stealing the artifacts, an 8th-century gilt-bronze Buddha dating back to the Unified Shilla era (668-935), and a 14th-century gilt-bronze Bodhisattva from the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392), and sneaking them past customs in Busan.
Experts say the historical and artistic merits of the two statues are extraordinary. One, from the National Museum of Korea, said that the 8th-century statue is special enough to be designated as a National Treasure "right away."
Provision No. 20 of Korea's Cultural Properties Protection Law states that the country should employ "necessary measures" to assist the return of foreign cultural property should the country of origin prove through a legitimate process that they were taken illegally and request their return.
The legal debate became murkier after a provisional ruling by the Daejeon District Court in February, which stated that the 14th century gilt-bronze Bodhisattva should not be returned until it is proven through legal proceedings that the Japanese temple acquired it in a lawful manner.
Korea's Buseok Temple, where it is claimed the 14th-century statue was made and originally kept, filed for an injunction against the government to stop it from returning the artifacts to Japan.
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Yoo Jin-ryong |
Korea and Japan are locked in an increasingly ill-tempered feud over the ownership of a pair of Korean medieval Buddhist statues that were stolen by Korean thieves from a Japanese shrine in October last year.
Japan demands that the statues, both listed on the country's Important Cultural Properties, be returned. Korea, which recovered the statues in January this year, finds it relevant that the Tsushima-based shrine might have acquired these artifacts hundreds of years ago through a process that would be considered illegal today.
Whatever Yoo says about this acutely sensitive issue will be dissected to the ground and occasionally trigger emotional explosion. He can't talk passionately about the Korean claims to the statues when interpretations in international laws aren't clear-cut. But he can't afford to look less-than-passionate facing a public that considers retaining the statues as a matter of national pride.
Yoo was reminded of his difficult position in a meeting with the culture ministers of Japan and Chain during the weekend, when Japanese journalists took and ran with his comments and portrayed him as supporting the statues being returned to Japan. Yoo claimed his words were taken out of context, but that didn't keep an angry opposition lawmaker in Seoul calling for his head.
''What the minster said was that we needed to wait before our courts reach a final decision on the matter and that Korea would follow international laws on the return of stolen cultural assets,'' said a culture ministry official, adding that the issue over the statues wasn't officially a topic in Yoo's meeting with Japan's Hakubun Shimomura and China's Cai Wu, which produced a casual agreement on cultural exchange.
''It was essentially a theoretical reply (to Shimomura) and we feel it was inappropriate for such comments to be colored differently and made public without consent.''
Five men were arrested in Daejeon in January for stealing the artifacts, an 8th-century gilt-bronze Buddha dating back to the Unified Shilla era (668-935), and a 14th-century gilt-bronze Bodhisattva from the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392), and sneaking them past customs in Busan.
Experts say the historical and artistic merits of the two statues are extraordinary. One, from the National Museum of Korea, said that the 8th-century statue is special enough to be designated as a National Treasure "right away."
Provision No. 20 of Korea's Cultural Properties Protection Law states that the country should employ "necessary measures" to assist the return of foreign cultural property should the country of origin prove through a legitimate process that they were taken illegally and request their return.
The legal debate became murkier after a provisional ruling by the Daejeon District Court in February, which stated that the 14th century gilt-bronze Bodhisattva should not be returned until it is proven through legal proceedings that the Japanese temple acquired it in a lawful manner.
Korea's Buseok Temple, where it is claimed the 14th-century statue was made and originally kept, filed for an injunction against the government to stop it from returning the artifacts to Japan.
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