The North Korean authorities recently adopted a new law on the protection of cultural heritage, abolishing an old one in the process. They are currently working on projects ostensibly designed to improve the protection and management of such items and locations.
Minju Chosun, the publication of the North Korean Cabinet, revealed news of the law on the 8th, saying, “The Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly recently abolished the previous Cultural Artifact Protection Law and adopted the Cultural Heritage Protection Act. This was done in order to better protect and manage our nation’s precious cultural heritage.”
“The law deals with cultural heritage such as castles, buildings, towers, memorial stones, in addition to language, performance art, social traditions and customs, holidays, traditional crafts and folk games,” it explained. The difference between the two laws is that the new act adds the protection and management of intangible cultural assets to its remit.
However, it has been pointed out since then that the law faces serious implementation hurdles, notably: ▲ in North Korea the management of Kim family sites must be prioritized; and ▲ the management of such resources will not bring opportunities for enrichment to personnel charged with doing it; and ▲ there is a dearth of education relating to cultural inheritance; and ▲ due to North Korea’s financial difficulties, it is going to be hard to improve and manage tangible and intangible cultural assets, irrespective of what is on the statute.
“There are historic site management offices in each city and provincial region, but state investment in these sites is tiny,” one senior defector told Daily NK dismissively. “The management of cultural assets is done by non-expert older people and local residents who volunteer.”
“There are many historic sites from the Koryo and Koguryo dynasties in North Korea, but the authorities have not established ways to introduce them or involve the people in their management,” he went on.
Therefore, the defector said that he assumes the adoption of the new law is a way for Kim Jong Eun to look like a caring man of good breeding in the eyes of those at home and abroad.
Another defector concurred with this view, declaring, “There isn’t much budget to manage and protect historical sites, because it all goes to the Kim family’s key places.”
