Decision 45 COM 7B.48

Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty (Republic of Korea) (C 1319bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7B.Add,
2. Recalling Decision 33 COM 8B.15 adopted at its 33rd session (Seville, 2009),
3. Welcomes the State Party’s efforts to fully implement its recommendations formulated at the time of inscription, and commends the State Party’s continued efforts to establish a set of development standards for each of the 18 buffer zones;
4. Notes that Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) are currently underway to evaluate the impacts of housing development plans on the conservation of Changneung Royal Tomb in the Seooreung Cluster and the Taereung Cluster, and that the State Party has committed to submitting these to the World Heritage Centre upon completion, for review by the Advisory Bodies;
5. Takes note of the information provided by the State Party regarding the construction of apartment complexes by three private construction companies in the vicinity of the Jangneung cluster without prior consultation with the national authorities in charge of World Heritage conservation;
6. Notes with concern that pungsu (geomantic principles), which played a critical role in the selection of a site for a royal tomb and support the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), are impacted adversely by this housing construction;
7. Notes with concern that, in December 2021, the construction companies won an administrative lawsuit against the Cultural Heritage Administration's administrative order to halt construction, and that the State Party is still engaged in appeals of these decisions, having lost the first rulings in 2022;
8. Requests the State Party to provide regular updates to the World Heritage Centre on the outcomes of the discussion and legal procedures currently ongoing for the construction of high-rise projects in the buffer zones and settings of all components of this property;
9. Commends the State Party for creating a task force to come up with measures to prevent similar unauthorized development activities from happening again in buffer zones, as well as for having invited an Advisory mission to this property to seek advice on conservation of the property’s OUV and mitigation measures, requests that the terms of the task force be extended to also include the landscape setting of the components of the property;
10. Takes note of the outcomes of the Advisory mission, and especially its concerns that similar situations with recent, ongoing or planned developments located on the outer limits of the property’s buffer zones and in the wider setting of the component sites are likely to be found at some of the other 15 tomb clusters and may represent significant, cumulative negative impacts on the property’s ability to express the OUV for which it was inscribed;
11. Encourages the State Party to strengthen information sharing with relevant government entities to ensure a more integral understanding of heritage regulations by local governments and members of the public, recommends that all relevant urban plans in the Republic of Korea integrate measures to fully safeguard World Heritage properties, especially the properties’ wider setting, in line with Paragraph 112 of the Operational Guidelines, and requests the State Party to revise the Special Act on Conservation, Management, and Utilization of World Heritage, with a view to incorporating impact assessments into the domestic heritage protection system;
12. Requests the State Party to fully implement the Advisory mission recommendations to safeguard the OUV of the property, in particular to:
    1. Carry out a full review of potential, planned and existing development impacts at each component of the World Heritage property to establish the status of the erosion of OUV since inscription and an exhaustive mapping of key view cones from each components, especially those view cones that support the OUV of the property,
    2. Take into full account the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context for the new HIA legislation and, upon adoption, widely disseminate materials about this legislation, including user-friendly materials adapted to the national system,
    3. Establish Standing Advisory Committees that include community members and representatives of municipal governments to ensure input from local communities, advance warning of pending issues and concerns, such as proposed large-scale developments, and to promote regular, two-way dialogue;
13. Requests the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Reactive Monitoring mission to the property with a view to thoroughly assessing the overall state of conservation of the property, the cumulative impacts of planned or ongoing housing and commercial developments, their existing and potential impacts on key view cones from the property, as well as any other factors affecting the property’s OUV at all 18 component sites;
14. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2024, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 46th session.