Korea’s Top National Treasure to Receive Mere 95 Million Won in Insurance Claim

Korea’s No. 1 national treasure Sungnyemun -- also known as Namdaemun (literally translated as Great South Gate) -- which nearly collapsed in an arson-suspected fire on Sunday is expected to receive less than 100 million won for its fire insurance claim.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday, Sungnyemun was subscribed to just one fire insurance policy, which was uniformly subscribed by Seoul City for other municipal properties.

This single fire insurance is to pay 95 million won only to cover the monstrous damage done to Sungnyemun.

The insurance payment is so low because instead of being subscribed to a fire insurance of a private company, Sungnyemun is subscribed to the Korea Local Finance Association’s “Building and Facility Disaster Relief Aid,” an insurer that deals with local governments. Seoul City holds no responsibility over Sungnyemun’s maintenance but nevertheless included the cultural treasure when uniformly subscribing the Korea Local Finance Association’s fire insurance for other municipal properties in 1998.

The Korea Local Finance Association calculates insurance bill and payment depending on a building’s gross floor area. Sungnyemun’s gross floor area is 299㎡, yielding an annual insurance payout of 278 won per ㎡ that totals to 83,120 won and the insurance claim for a fire damage is 318,000 won per ㎡, accumulating to 95.08 million won.

[Dong-eun Lee / KHS]

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