After the Korea Heritage Service announced it would designate the area around Jongmyo in Seoul, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as a World Heritage district, the Seoul city government criticized the move, saying the agency had been demanding World Heritage impact assessments without any legal basis.
On the 14th, the city issued an explanatory note, saying, "Designating a World Heritage district is essential to implement a World Heritage impact assessment," and "the Korea Heritage Service has effectively acknowledged that it had demanded implementation of the World Heritage impact assessment without concrete legal and administrative grounds."
The city said, "Although 'heritage zones + buffer zones' are to be established when a site is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Jongmyo still has no buffer zone finalized even 30 years after inscription," adding, "The World Heritage district approved at this Cultural Heritage Committee meeting also designates only the heritage zone, and the buffer zone, an essential component of a World Heritage district, remains unset."
It went on to note, "The Korea Heritage Service consulted with the Seoul city government for more than nine years and held 13 rounds of cultural heritage reviews, yet even postponed designating the buffer zone that serves as the baseline for assessing heritage value."
The Korea Heritage Service the previous day passed an agenda item on "new designation review for the Jongmyo World Heritage district." Accordingly, 194,089.6 square meters centered on Jongmyo will be designated as a World Heritage district. The agency's position is that once designated as a World Heritage district, the spatial scope for the World Heritage impact assessment is set.
On the 30th of last month, through a public notice, the city changed the maximum building heights in Sewoon Zone 4 from the original 55 meters along Jongno and 71.9 meters along Cheonggyecheon to 101 meters along Jongno and 145 meters along Cheonggyecheon. In response, the Korea Heritage Service objected, saying that because the Seoul city government did not accept UNESCO's recommendation to undergo a World Heritage impact assessment, negative consequences such as delisting from World Heritage status are expected.
The city maintains that it still does not need to conduct a World Heritage impact assessment. Even if the area is designated as a World Heritage district, the Korea Heritage Service can only "request" an impact assessment and cannot compel it, the city said.