Roh Moo-hyun(L) and his wife Kwon Yang-sook looks at the monument for great victory in Pukkwan
© AFP/POOL Kim Kyung-HoonSEOUL (AFP) - Following eight years of construction on a site formerly used as a US military helicopter pad, the six-storey structure claims to be the largest museum in Asia and sixth largest in the world in terms of floor space.
Without a permanent home, the National Museum has had to move six times since 1945 when Korea was liberated from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule.
Its last home was a stone structure that was built on the compound of a Chosun dynasty (1392-1910) palace and used by the Japanese colonial government as its headquarters.
This building was dismantled as part of the governments drive to eliminate the colonial legacy.
With a total floor space of 134,270 square meters (1,44 million square feet), the new museum stands on a sprawling site which used to be part of a US military base that houses the headquarters of the US Eighth Army.
"This is the place where Chinese, Japanese and American troops took their turns in staying over the past 100 years," President Roh Moo-Hyun said at the opening ceremony broadcast live by TV across the country.
When the US military base is relocated south of Seoul by 2008, its site will be turned into a public park which will be dedicated to glorifying the nation's long history, Roh said.
Taking its design from the walls of Korea's ancient fortresses, the building is 424 meters (1,399 feet) long and also boasts extensive gardens planted with indigenous plants and old stupas.
Director Lee Kun-Moo of the museum said about 11,000 of the museum's 150,000 artifacts will be displayed in permanent galleries and it will take at least 11 hours "only to browse them."
Relics on display range from Stone Age tools, gold crowns of the 5th century Shilla Kingdom, the famous blue celadons of the 11th and 12th century, as well as an old book printed in 1403 by metal movable types.
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