The South Korean government hopes to coordinate with the North a joint exhibition in Seoul of four different versions of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), culture ministry officials and civilian organizations engaged in inter-Korean cooperation projects said Thursday.

Such an exhibition next year would celebrate the 600th anniversary of when the first volume of the annals was published and promote cross-border exchanges to ease lingering tensions, they said.

The annals, known as “Joseon Wangjo Sillok” in Korean, are 1,893 chapters in 888 books that, in chronological order, record Joseon history for 472 years spanning 25 kings from King Taejo to King Cheoljong.

The South Korean government designated the annals as a national treasure in 1973 and UNESCO listed the books on its Memory of the World Registry in 1997.

The annals are stored at four archives in deep mountain sites ― three in South Korea and one in North Korea.

“This project is meaningful in both the perspective that Korean cultural assets shared by the two Koreas will come together at one place and that annals from the four archives, which have never been together, will be displayed in one place,” a cultural ministry official said, requesting not to be named.

“We’re now at the stage of carefully studying the possibilities (of holding such an exhibition) as we need to collect opinions from all walks of life in South Korea and cooperation from the North is essential.”

Because the annals were published over a wide period of time, South Korea has not previously celebrated their anniversary.

In recent years, however, there have been moves to commemorate the annals’ publication, setting the year 1413 when the first volume was published as the birth year. (Yonhap News)