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Three KBS-hired crew members handed to prosecutors over nailing props to heritage site

Published: 10 Feb. 2025, 13:11

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

KBS-hired staff are seen putting nails into the walls of Byeongsan Seowon, a Unesco-listed heritage site dating back to 1575 in Andong, North Gyeongsang. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Andong Police Station on Monday turned over three KBS-hired crew members to the prosecution for putting nails into a 450-year-old Unesco-listed heritage building in Andong, North Gyeongsang.

The individuals, who were part of the props team working on unspecified content for the local broadcaster, allegedly hammered several nails into the wooden pillars and pavilions of the neo-Confucian academy Byeongsan Seowon in December last year.

Andong City reported the matter to the police last month. The police later confirmed the act constituted vandalism that violated Korea's Cultural Heritage Protection Act.

KBS has reportedly apologized to the Andong City government and removed all the scenes related to the issue.

Byeongsan Seowon in Andong, North Gyeongsang [KOREA HERITAGE SERVICE]

Byeongsan Seowon, founded in 1575, is widely regarded as the epitome of Korean traditional architecture. It is one of just a handful of seowon (Confucian academies) that survived the tumultuous history of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), including multiple kings’ orders to shut them down because they felt seowon threatened their rule and the Japanese invasions of Korea throughout the 1590s.

Unesco named it a World Heritage site in 2019.

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]