Abstract
<jats:p>This paper examines the implementation of hangul, the Korean alphabet, on the Korean Peninsula. The alphabet was created in 1443 under King Sejong with the aim of providing a writing system suited to the phonetic structure of the Korean language and accessible to the common people. Despite its scientific design, the new script faced strong resistance from the Confucian elite, who regarded Chinese characters (hanja) as the only legitimate form of writing. As a result, for centuries the Korean alphabet was marginalized and associated with women, children, and the lower social classes. From the late nineteenth century, profound political, social, and cultural changes transformed the attitudes toward the Korean script. Confrontation with Western powers, internal reform movements and the weakening of traditional ties to China encouraged the adoption of hangul as a symbol of modernization, patriotism, and national identity. During the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), the Korean language and script became key instruments of cultural resistance. The activities of the Korean Language Society, including the compilation of dictionaries and the promulgation of the Unified Korean Orthography of 1933, represented both scholarly achievement and national defiance. These efforts came at great personal risk, culminating in the 1942 incident in which many linguists were arrested and persecuted. Following the liberation in 1945, the foundations laid during the colonial period enabled the formal restoration of hangul as a national alphabet in both North and South Korea. KEYWORDS: Korean alphabet, Korean dictionary, standardization of the Korean language, Korean Language Society incident, Korean linguistics</jats:p>