Sungryemun Still Top National Treasure

The Cultural Properties Committee decided to keep Sungryemun (Namdaemun) as National Treasure No.1 for the time being in a meeting yesterday.

The government’s decision to replace Sungryemun with something else as National Treasure No.1 stirred up controversy over the re-designation of national treasures.

Still, as early as in the first half of next year, the numbering system of national treasures appears to be abolished.

On the afternoon of November 14 at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Gyeongbok Palace, the national treasure designation division of the Cultural Properties Committee had a meeting to discuss whether to re-designate National Treasure No.1 and made the above-mentioned decision.

After the meeting, Ahn Hwi-jun, the chairperson of the Cultural Properties Committee, said, “While Sungryemun remains as National Treasure No.1, the Cultural Properties Administration will work on a plan on how to improve the classification and management of national treasures. Relying on the plan, we will officially consider the removal of the numbering system.”

Currently, the Cultural Properties Administration intends to come up with a plan on how to improve the classification and management system of national treasures by next February or March. Therefore, discussions on the abolition of the numbering system are expected to begin in earnest as early as early next year.

Out of the 14 members of the national treasure designation division of the Cultural Properties Committee, 12 members participated in the meeting. Those 12 members reportedly put forth the opinion that the optimal option is to remove the numbering system and to give numbers to national treasures for management purposes.

Therefore, the numbering system is expected to be abolished. Should that happen, the names of national treasures would also change. For example, National Treasure No. 1, Sungryemun, and National Treasure No. 70, Hunmin Jeongeum, will just be called National Treasure Sungryemun and National Treasure Hunmin Jeongeum.

Kwawg-Pyo Lee kplee@donga.com