A Korean archive was opened on Dec. 11 at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. (National Library of Korea)

By Charles Audouin

An archive has been opened in Taiwan featuring Korean culture at a single venue.

The National Library of Korea (NLK) on Dec. 12 said it opened the facility at Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

As the first of its kind in the island country, the reference room is on the seventh floor of the school's library and covers 234 square m. Among its 250,000 materials and books on Korea, 1,885 were donated by the NLK.

In 1963, the university launched an undergraduate department in Korean, and in 2000, it opened a master's program. It set up in 2014 the Center for Korean Studies, which has played a leading role in the development of Korean studies in Taiwan.

Since 2007, the NLK has opened such archives at 36 institutes in 30 countries in Asia, Europe, and Central and South America. These venues store over 130,000 reference items and provide Korean cultural content.

An NLK source said, "The archive will allow Korean and Taiwan youth to consider each other's culture and grow."

caudouin@korea.kr