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Unhappy 70th, happy 569th: Korean birthdays

This weekend the two Koreas celebrate very different national holidays. In Pyongyang preparations are under way for a spectacle to mark tomorrow’s 70th anniversary of the foundation of the North Korean Workers’ Party, ruled by the Kim family dictatorship. A military parade and mass performances are expected, though watchers suspect that more bellicose fireworks—a rocket launch—will not materialise. Over the border, South Koreans commemorate the proclamation, 569 years ago today, of their language’s first indigenous alphabet, hangul. It was crafted from scratch under King Sejong so that all Koreans, not just the educated aristocracy (who learnt classical Chinese characters), might read and write. The script’s 28 characters (of which 24 remain in use) were so intuitive, the king averred, that they could be learnt by a wise man in a morning; and “a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days”. In a word: 독창적. Ingenious.

Oct 9th 2015
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