Today, our country is carrying on the work of identifying and registering excellent intangible cultural heritage elements created by our ancestors as an all-people undertaking.

   The Non-Permanent Intangible Heritage Examination and Appraisal Committee held a meeting from September 10 to 13, 2024, to register 18 elements on the national and local intangible cultural heritage inventories.

   The committee put Yangdok hot spring culture, the methods of making Koryo medicines, taffy, beef-rib soup, kangjong (fried glutinous rice cake), samgyethang (stewed chicken with insam), tasik (patterned savory cake) and rice boiled with shellfish, technique of making Oungum, seesawing, horse-riding, custom of using edible herbs and know-how of making Royal court medicines on the national ICH inventory, and the technique of making Kyongsong ceramics, mud-snail handicrafts and rice boiled with oysters, and folk song Hoeyang Nilliri on the local ICH inventory.

   And it decided to include the cultivation of Unjong tea tree and custom of tea drinking in Tea Culture No. 116 of the national intangible cultural heritage.

   The methods of preparing Koryo medicines are those of processing natural materials, which have long been used in treating diseases and protecting the health of the people and which still preserve their value.

   The Yangdok Hot Spring Culture has been formed and developed through a long historical progress to use thermal water for medical treatment and health promotion. Diverse in kind, style and service, it embraces the whole course of medical treatment, leisure activities and accommodation.

   The custom of tea culture incorporates all the procedures ranging from the techniques of tea tree cultivation to tea production, packaging and storing, the way of infusing tea leaves in water, tea set and its usage, and the way of serving tea.

   Also registered were the details of formation of other intangible cultural heritage and their making methods, advantages and significance.

   The registration of new national and local ICH elements enriches the cultural heritage of the Korean nation.