The nation will up efforts to have several Confucian academies and temples adopted into the UNESCO world heritage list as part of its drive to raise Korea’s profile abroad, said a government report on Friday.

According to the Presidential Council on National Branding, it plans to have nine Confucian academies and several Buddhist temples recognized by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Well known schools such as the Sosu Seowon and Dosan Seowon have already been recognized by UNESCO as provisional world heritage assets.

“It is now time for us to unearth and take interest in our own cultural heritage,” said President Lee Myung-bak during the briefing by the council Friday.

The presidential council also reported that it would focus more on World Friends Korea, a homebrewed international volunteering program modeled after the U.S. Peace Corps, as another means of promoting the nation’s image.

It plans to educate volunteers in history, culture and others before dispatching them to other countries.

“It is important to be international recognized in culture, sports and other diverse areas outside of economics,” said Lee as quoted by Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Jeong-ha.

“This is the path to being a developed country.”

The council also said it will continue to host “Korea Week” which is an event that aims to promote the country’s culture and prestige internationally.

According to Peter Underwood, head of the U.S. State of Georgia Korea Office, Korea’s recognition is rising but still falls behind that of Japan and China. Underwood added that Korea needs to work on formulating an iconic image of the county.

However Underwood said that through Korea’s free trade agreement with the European Union there have been more commercials and interest growing towards Korea from European countries.

The council will also train tour guides in Korea’s culture. This year it will train 90 guides fluent in English, Japanese or Chinese.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)