This undated file photo released by Yonhap shows the Mausoleum of King Gongmin, the 318th king of the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392), in the ancient North Korean city of Kaesong, which was the kingdom’s capital.
DPA/Phnom Penh
Historical monuments and sites in North Korea, Iran, Italy, Germany and Ukraine were yesterday added to Unesco’s World Heritage list.
The Kaesong site, North Korea’s light industry centre which served as the base of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) that gave its name to modern Korea were selected for their historical and cultural significance at a Unesco meeting in Cambodia.
Kaesong has also acquired a political significance as the site of a joint industrial enterprise between North and South Korea, although operations there were suspended in April.
Kaesong becomes the second World Heritage site in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea after the Complex of Koguryo Tombs in Pyongyang that was listed in 2004.
The other additions included the Bergpark Wilhelmshoehe in the German city of Kassel, Golestan Palace in Tehran, the Medici family villas in Italy and the Ancient City of Rauric Chersonese and its Chora in the Ukraine.
The Medici family hosted artists, philosophers and literati from the 15th to the 18th century at the villas in Tuscany, whose architectural and aesthetic forms are among the most original of the Italian Renaissance.
