An archive documenting the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking and a collection of ancient Korean cookbooks were added to a regional UNESCO Memory of the World list on November 5, 2026. The inscriptions were granted at a meeting in Jakarta of the UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific, Yonhap reported.
South Korea now holds eight inscriptions on the UNESCO Asia-Pacific regional list, after the committee added the Sewol archive and the culinary collection at its Jakarta meeting.
An archive documenting the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking and a collection of ancient Korean cookbooks were added to a regional UNESCO Memory of the World list on November 5, 2026, Yonhap reported. The inscriptions were granted at a general meeting of the UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific held in Jakarta.
The Sewol archive, formally the "Danwon High School 4.16 Archive: Records of Citizens' Memory and Healing Movements," comprises 235,220 pieces of records related to the maritime disaster on April 16, 2014, when the ferry sank en route to the southern resort island of Jeju, killing 304 passengers. Danwon High School in Ansan, south of Seoul, suffered one of the biggest casualties, with 250 of 325 students who were aboard the ferry for a school trip killed.
The archive includes documents such as a calendar for the month of April 2014 collected from a classroom at the school, as well as records detailing the recovery of bereaved families of victims and survivors. The Korea Heritage Service said the archive captures the wounds of individuals, families and communities and their efforts for recovery.
Kim Soon-gil, a mother of student victim Jin Yoon-hee, said she hopes the archive goes beyond the inscription to teach and educate the future generation about the ferry sinking.
The second submission, "Suunjapbang and Eumsikdimibang: Community Archives of Traditional Korean Culinary Knowledge," also made the list. With the latest additions, South Korea now has eight inscriptions on the regional list aimed at preserving documentary heritage across the Asia-Pacific region, including a set of traditional wooden plaques and "Maninso" (10,000 people's petitions). Countries can submit three applications to be reviewed every two years for the Asia-Pacific list.
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