The Chungbuk Times(CBT) researched about the preservation of cultural assets. Many people remember the fires at Sungnyemun and Naksan Temple. Cultural asset accidents frequently occur everywhere. What is the situation in other countries? Moreover, the Chungbuk Times gave questions to students about the preservation of cultural assets. -Ed.
 
■ Cultural assets definition
   In general, ‘cultural assets’ means not only having economic value but also being historically important with artistic value and cultural relevance. In other words, cultural assets are a product of culture that had been made by humans. Therefore, cultural assets will be based on the traditional values of each country. Therefore, people should preserve cultural assets so that we can hand them down to descendants. The nation made a law to preserve cultural assets in 1962. Also, the government made a cultural department and took complete charge of all cultural assets. Moreover, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism supplied relative cultural assets and established the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation to preserve cultural assets.
 
■ Threatened cultural assets
   There was a fire at Naksan Temple, which is well known to people as a cultural asset loss. On April 4 in 2005, a fire broke out in the hills of  Yangyang county at night. This fire burned 11 buildings of the temple in that incident. Fortunately, Hongryun Hermitage and Buddhist Saint of Sea statue were not burned. All the people were disappointed with the accident.
   On February 10 in 2008, an accident occurred where a man entered the Sungnyemun on the second floor and then set fire to Sungnyemun. The fire was brought under control after 5 hours. The damage cost was estimated at 10 billion won. Cultural asset accidents frequently occur everywhere.
   Many cases of cultural asset damage exist other than those well-known incidents. For example, ‘Changgyeong Palace arson incident’, ‘Suwon Hwaseong Fortress Seojangdae arson incident’, ‘Seal Statue Fountain of Deoksu Palace damage incident’, ‘Social Morals Memorial Stone of Jobyongap damage incident’ and ‘Yeoncheon Soongeui Palace fire incident’. The Korea government took efforts to rapidly handle the preservation of culture assets. However, Korea is lacking in comparison with other countries.
   In August in 2007, the worst wildfire ever occurred in Greece. However, the government prevented Ancient Olympia at the foot of the hill south of Kronos from its ruin because the government dealt with the fire rapidly.

■ Cultural assets preservation of culture advanced countries
   Europe tries to preserve cultural assets from fires, theft and natural disasters. For example, France tries to protect cultural assets, so France applied a cultural assets law. Moreover, France spends 39% of its Culture Ministry budget to preserve cultural assets.
   In Japan, more than 70% of the fire stations have been equipped with extinguishing devices, and more than 90% of the buildings, such as temples that hold important cultural properties and national treasures, are equipped with self-extinguishing equipment. In addition, Japan has built storage equipment specific to protect the relics from external shock, such as a fire or earthquake. China, which has a lot of wooden cultural assets, also cares about cultural assets. Therefore, China established building fire management rules in 1984. In some cases, cultural assets facilities are provided with their own fire stations. For example, under the direction of Premier ZhouEnlai, a fire station was established at the Beijing Forbidden City in 1975. The fire fighters arrive within 1-2 minutes when a fire starts at the Forbidden City 24 hours a day.
 
■ Will Korea preserve cultural assets?
   Yangyang County has expanded the fire-extinguishing system again of Naksan temple since 2012. After the Sungnyemun arson incident, Korea has established corresponding training in the event of a fire for preservation of wooden cultural assets. CBT has received the opinions from CBNU students and a professor.

■ What do you think about Korea cultural assets preservation at present?
   Lee Jong-min, who is a professor of Archaeology and Art History, said, “Korea's law about preservation of culture was legislated and has been maintained well. However, people are not interested in cultural assets. People are interested in costs through TV shows about cultural assets. I feel sorry for Koreans who make issues only when the media mentions cultural assets.”
   Lee Seung-hoon, who is a student of History, said, “Compared to other countries, Korea does not seem to be prepared for preservation of cultural heritage facilities. I think that the public needs to care about saving cultural assets. Furthermore, people need to have an interest in cultural assets on an ongoing basis.”
   Park Si-woo, who is a student of Architectural Engineering, said, “I think that cultural asset maintenance is poor. The government is only managing cultural assets which are famous to people. Other cultural assets are not preserved. We must consider not only the country, but people must also have interest steadily.”
   Lee Yae-ji, who is a student of English Language and Literature, said, “Europe is trying to maintain cultural assets. However, Korea is indifferent towards cultural assets. In particular, the government should invest money actively for the protection of cultural assets.”
 

By You Ha-kyeong
hk33@cbnu.ac.kr