UNESCO committee meeting continues in New Delhi

Japan's Sado mines added to World Heritage list. A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register on July 27 after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The decision was taken during the 46th annual meeting of the United Nations World Heritage Committee, which is taking place in India's capital New Delhi.

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 after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization."

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."

Italy's ancient Roman Appian Way was another place admitted to the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 27, becoming the country's 60th entry on the list.

At more than 800 kilometers long, the Appian Way, known...