The Korean traditional music performed by farmers known as “nongak” is expected to be added to UNESCO’s world cultural heritage list.
 
The Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) said Wednesday that a UNESCO deliberative body made a unanimous decision to recommend that nongak be included in the intangible cultural heritage list.
 
The body also recommended that the North Korean version of Arirang, a famous Korean traditional folk song, be added to the UNESCO list.
 
The final decision will be made in late November at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
 
The CHA said a recommendation by the deliberative body is rarely overturned.
 
Nongak would be South Korea's 17th item on the UNESCO list, which includes the royal ancestral rituals and music of Jongmyo Shrine and the traditional form of musical storytelling known as "pansori.”