National Response to International Conventions : The Case of the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention and the New Korean Legislation

The 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has enabled the setting of a universal standard to safeguard living heritage, by specifying the concepts, principles, and various domestic and international mechanisms. Nevertheless, the last decade has witnessed a certain degree of disparity in compliance to the Convention among States Parties. The Republic of Korea, as a country which has a long history of protecting heritage and which has also contributed to the development of the Convention, has drawn the attention of the international community by establishing a new legislation in 2015. With the understanding of the Convention on one hand, the study analyzes the compatibility of Korean approach with international norms and investigates the implicit challenges at hand for the implementation of the Convention.