The National Museum of Korea, total surface of one hundred thousand square feet museum complex set in the Yongsan park, was selected by an international architectural competition, open to architects of the entire world in December 1994. Unprecedented in Korea, this procedure, organized in conformity with the UNESCO/UIA Recommendation concerning international competitions in architecture and town planning, received the approval of the International Union of Architects (UIA). This competition, international, open and anonymous was run in two phases: ideas and basic plan competitions. The program, which was established by the Korean Institute of Architects (KIA), concerned the design of a museum complex of the Yong San Family Park. It included four departments devoted respectively to: history, archaeology, arts and crafts, East Asian Arts. The competition met with wide success amongst the architects of the world. Eight hundred forty five registrations from fifty nine countries were registered by the organizers and three hundred forty one projects were submitted. Amongst the competitors, many well known professionals, such as Christian de Portzamparc(France), took participated in this prestigious competition. The members of jury were included
Wilhelm Kucker (Germany), UIA representative, Mrs. Gae Aulenti (Italy) who designed Orsay Museum, Henri E. Ciriani (France) and Randall Vosbeck (USA). After examining the reports from the technical commission, the jury deliberated and made the final selection from which the winner was chosen. Anonymity was then lifted to reveal the identity of all the competitors and Junglim was identified as the first prize winner.
