King Sejong: The Creation of the Korean Language

King Sejong took only three years to create Hangeul, as he called it. However, he had to work in secret, hiding his work from others. Hangeul was a new alphabet that was created to be a written system for the Korean Language, unlike Hanja. He knew that Government officials would also dislike a new language, for they would not like the concept of the citizens being able to find loopholes in the law. Once they found out, the upper class revolted and claimed King Sejong’s son's life. Even through these hardships, King Sejong persevered and created a language that created a new frontier in Korean literacy, literature, and reading.