The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Wednesday started releasing comprehensive information about the country’s cultural heritage through its portal site, www.culture.go.kr, giving the public wider and easier access to the country’s traditional cultural assets.

Currently, photos and details about 300,000 items are available. The Cultural Heritage Administration and the National Museum of Korea will share their databases in order to provide a broader range of information about the artifacts.

Information on 850,000 more items will be available by June 2014.

Some of the pieces that are kept in storage at 669 museums and cultural organizations will be disclosed to the public through the Internet site. Most of the displayed photographs on the website will be available for use by the public for free. A comprehensive guideline on cultural heritage management will also be set up.

“The information can be used in developing souvenirs and other items with the images of the cultural heritages ― such as soaps, door knobs, QR codes and others. The National Museum Cultural Foundation is already making 4 billion won in sales a year using some of its assets,” the ministry said in a press release.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)