Busan won its bid to host the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in 2026, marking South Korea's first time as host since the annual meeting was established in 1977.

The announcement was made during the 47th committee meeting in Paris on Tuesday.

The annual meeting is the largest annual international event on the cultural heritage calendar. Next year, it is expected to take place July 19-29 at the Bexco Convention Center, although a final decision will come after further discussions, according to officials.

"It is a great honor for us to host the 48th session of the meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea. We promise to take the responsibility of hosting the event with a focus on shared global values," Choi Eung-chon, who heads the KHS, said in his acceptance speech.

The presidential office in Seoul welcomed Busan's selection as the host city of the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting.

"World Heritage are precious cultural assets that connect the past, present and future. Their continued protection is more important than ever amidst the climate crisis, urbanization and pressures of development," Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said during a press briefing Wednesday. "Korea will fulfill its responsibilities as a global cultural powerhouse," she added.

The meetings bring together approximately 3,000 participants, including representatives from 196 member states and the UNESCO Director-General, to decide on additions to the World Heritage List and how to protect those already on the list.

Busan City Mayor Park Hyeong-joon also called the selection a "historic achievement," pledging that the city will thoroughly prepare for the event.

Busan was the sole bidder for next year's meeting. The Korea Herald has learned that Vietnam initially intended to enter a bid but later withdrew its decision to participate.

"The host country is typically chosen on a rotational basis by continent so that each region gets a fair chance, and next year was expected to be Asia's turn. Since Japan and China have already hosted the event, and South Korea serves as a member of the committee, we actively expressed our desire to do so. Vietnam — which could have been a competitor — didn't expect to win, so it chose not to bid," a senior official at the KHS told The Korea Herald.

South Korea was elected to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in November 2023 for a four-year term through 2027, marking the country's fourth such election.

Meanwhile, North Korea's Kumgangsan and South Korea's Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream were recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites during this year's meeting.

Also, Seoul's attempt to spotlight Japan's failure to present the full history of the colonial-era forced labor at UNESCO-listed Meiji Industrial Revolution sites — added in 2015 — was unsucccesful after the heritage oversight body turned down South Korea's bid to reassess Japan's implementation, with seven votes in favor of Japan's amendment to exclude the issue from discussion and three votes against it. The Foreign Ministry in Seoul immediately voiced regret following the vote.

Amid sharp divisions between the two countries, Seoul called on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to step in if Tokyo continues to avoid acknowledging its wartime forced labor history at industrial heritage sites, noting that its implementation remains insufficient and continues to raise concerns.