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Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Holds Talks with British, Iranian Officials

Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)
Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)
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Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Holds Talks with British, Iranian Officials

Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)
Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)

Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq held talks in Riyadh on Wednesday with the UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson.

They met on the sidelines of the 45th Extended Session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, which is taking place in the Saudi capital from September 10 to 25.

Al-Touq welcomed the British official to Saudi Arabia and extended his gratitude to the UK for announcing support for the Kingdom’s nomination to the UNESCO Executive Board for the term 2023-2027 term.

The officials discussed the existing cooperation and stressed the importance of developing bilateral relations within the framework of the memorandum of understanding for cultural cooperation that was signed in February 2022.

They also looked forward to cooperating in developing various projects in the heritage and museum fields.

Al-Touq also met with Iranian Vice Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Dr. Ali Darabi, who was also attending the UNESCO event.

The officials discussed ways to boost cultural cooperation in various fields.

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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II.

Japan had put a case for World Heritage listing because of their lengthy history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines had turned to mechanization.

The proposal was opposed by Seoul when it was first put because of the use of involuntary Korean labor during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.

UNESCO confirmed the listing of the mines at its ongoing committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization".

"I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the inscription... and pay sincere tribute to the long-standing efforts of the local people which made this possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.

The World Heritage effort was years in the making, inspired in part by the successful recognition of a silver mine in western Japan's Shimane region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site and takes proactive measures to that end."

Historians have argued that recruitment conditions at the mine effectively amounted to forced labor, and that Korean workers faced significantly harsher conditions than their Japanese counterparts.

"Discrimination did exist," Toyomi Asano, a professor of history of Japanese politics at Tokyo's Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.

"Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. The most dangerous jobs were allocated to them."

Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

The UNESCO committee meeting runs until Wednesday.