Korean is the official language of South Korea, while in North Korea (Chosŏn) it is called Chosŏnmal (Chosŏn Language). Both refer to the same language.
The labelling method of Korean is divided into Chinese characters and Korean letters, with the former being ideogram while the latter being phonogram. Thus, Korean mingles two kinds of writing systems. Due to a long-term influence from Chinese culture, it is generally accepted that Chinese characters became massively used in Korean since 4th – 6th century AD.
Korean and Chosŏnmal
Despite the fact that Korean and Chosŏnmal refer the same language, with the interaction between the North and the South, particular the general population, having been broken off for more than 50 years as well as the different level of development between the two states, new vocabularies in modern Korean especially those originated from the Western world either do not exist or exist in other forms in modern Chosŏnmal. Apart from those new vocabularies, there is only slight difference in terms of phonetics between Korean and Chosŏnmal. The situation of mutually unintelligible does not exist. Both Korean and Chosŏnmal write Korean letters, which are phonograms.
At present, there are approximately 70 million Korean users, who are mainly distributed in Korean Peninsula. They are also distributed in Northeastern China, USA, Japan, as well as the Central Asian states and Far East regions of the former USSR.
