On 4 May , the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) announced the state-designated cultural heritage registration of two buildings, two facilities and a magazine in the 1920s and 1930s. The Main Building and the old Science Hall of Gimcheon High school, Suwon Station Water Tower, Old Busan Leper House Monument, and a magazine, Buddhism, have been registered as state-designated cultural heritage, nos 778 to 782 respectively.
The main building of the high school, a two-storey building from 1931, is located in Gimcheon-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. Gimcheon High school is a private school established by Choi Songseoldang, an educational entrepreneur who invested her entire fortune in the school to support national spirit during the Japanese colonial period. Park Gillyong designs the main building in the early days of the school, and it recognises the conservation value in respect to architectural history. The old Science Hall was also built at the time of the foundation of the school. It demonstrates the architectural characteristics of the modern school in the 1930s and maintains its original shape both inside and outside the building.
Suwon Station Water Tower is located in Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do. It was also created in the 1930s and has a reinforced concrete water tower and a red brick water tower. It is a rare case in which the water tower of a national broad-gauge railway and one of a private narrow-gauge railway are located on the same site. It is recognised for its value as a heritage site, as it reveals the historic transition of the water tower to the national railway and private railway. The former Busan Leper House Memorial Monument was built in 1930 to commemorate the establishment of the Busan Leper House, the first lazaretto in Korea, and is located in Dong-gu, Busan. The hospital, founded in 1909, was established only for patients with Hansen’s disease, and it retains significance for reflecting upon the history of specialist medical fields in Korea, the memories of missionary work, and the existence and human rights of patients at the time.
Buddhism is a general magazine published during the Japanese colonial period. After its foundation in 1924, it issued vol.1 to vol. 108, and then was discontinued in 1933. Subsequently, it was revived in 1937 and issued 1-67 until 1944. The magazine is an essential material for research on the history of Buddhism since it is possible to grasp the Buddhist policies of the Japanese colonial period and the corresponding Buddhist community reactions through articles written by major Buddhists at the time.
The Cultural Heritage Administration announced that it would systematically preserve and manage these five cases registered as state-designated cultural heritage assets in cooperation with local governments, owners, and administrators.