UN Approves Japan Bid For Industrial Sites' Heritage Status

John Potter, a member of the San Antonio Living History Association, patrols the Alamo in San Antonio, during a pre-dawn memorial ceremony to remember the 1836 Battle of the Alamo and those who fell on both sides. The San Antonio Missions in Texas have been awarded world heritage status by the U.N.'s cultural body.UNESCO's World Heritage Committee approved the listing Sunday, July 5, 2015, of the five Spanish Roman Catholic sites built in the 18th century in and around what is now the city of San Antonio. (AP)

BONN, GERMANY (AP) — A fortress island near Nagasaki has been awarded world heritage status after Japan and South Korea resolved a spat over whether to acknowledge the site's history of wartime forced labor.

Japan had applied to list Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island, as a world heritage location along with almost two dozen other sites to illustrate the country's industrial revolution during the 19th century.

But until recently, Seoul had objected to the listing unless the role of Korean prisoners forced to work there during World War II was formally recognized. The decision Sunday by the U.N. cultural body UNESCO is likely to drive up tourism to the Nagasaki region. Similar listings for the Zollverein coal mine complex in Germany's Ruhr Valley have helped boost visitors to those sites in recent years.