President Park Geun-hye visited the National Museum of Iran on May 3 and looked around the many ancient Persian artifacts and heritage items.

Established in 1937, the National Museum of Iran is a historic site that consists of the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of the Islamic Era. About 300,000 artifacts are kept in the national museum, including artifacts from post-Islam Iran and from the ancient Persian Empire that flourished where eastern and western civilizations met. In fact, some of the representative pieces from the museum's collection traveled to Seoul and Daegu in 2008 to be part of the "Persia: the Golden Empire" exhibit jointly organized with the National Museum of Korea.

The president looked around the museum accompanied by the head of the museum Jabrael Nokandeh, and she showed her deep interest in ancient Persia and in the history of Iran.

During the president's state visit to Iran, the Korean government and the Iranian government signed a range of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that covered cross-cultural cooperation. One MOU covered a partnership in the "cultural and creative industries." The National Museum of Korea and National Museum of Iran signed another MOU. Lastly, the two governments agreed to collaborate on the "Year of Korea-Iran Cultural Exchange" that will take place in 2017 and open a Korean culture center in Tehran.

By Wi Tack-whan, Chang Iou-chung
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photos: Cheong Wa Dae
whan23@korea.kr