As part of Copenhagen’s tourism agreement with Seoul, the mayor of the South Korea capital, Park Won-soon, has announced that he wants to erect a copy of The Little Mermaid statue along the banks of the river Han.

Copenhagen City Council is looking into whether ‘The Little Mermaid’s Sister’ project can be realised from a financial perspective and will have to consult with the family of the statue’s creator, Edvard Eriksen.

“You have to be wary of making too many copies and it’s important that there are events that revolve round the statue so that it isn’t passively standing there,” Lise Lyck, the head of the tourism and culture centre at Copenhagen Business School, told Metroxpress newspaper.

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HC Andersen galore
Lyck went on to say that it was a good concept, pointing to the great success enjoyed when The Little Mermaid was on display in Shanghai, China a couple of years ago.

“We’ve seen it from paintings, because even though you have seen a reproduction of a Van Gogh, you also want to see the original. And that translates to this area too,” Lyck said.

Should the project go ahead, Copenhagen will in return obtain a copy of one of two South Korea cultural heritage items: either a copy of the Bosingak bell, which is originally from 1396, or a copy of the statue of King Sejong the Great, who ruled from 1397 to 1450.

Won-soon, who said he was a huge HC Andersen fan, also visited Odense during his Denmark trip this week and also wants to establish a HC Andersen theme park in Seoul.