• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.929-943
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• 2013

This paper examines the evaluation and categorization of national heritage 'Myeongseung(scenic places)' from the viewpoint of world heritage concept and its criteria. This study focuses on Myeongseung because the author thinks it implies the unique human-nature relationships that have been evolved in Korean Peninsula, and then draws some pending problems with the evaluation of those heritage. Formerly, the paper discusses theoretically the outcome and point at issue on concept, criteria, evaluation of world heritage, and then proposes three issues on the evaluation and categorization of national heritage 'Myeongseung': first, the establishment of basic concept for evaluation of heritage; second, the building of unified criteria list to cover both natural and cultural heritage; and third, the reorganization of categories for the advanced registration and management. Especially, the author emphasizes that it is necessary rather to extend actively the world heritage concept than to regard it as a fixed framework.