한국말		Hangul was invented in 1445 by King Sejong During the Yi Dynasty. It was originally called Hunminchongum and contained 28 letters. Hangul (as it is now called) currently contains 24 letters, 14 consonants and 10 vowels. King Sejong employed many of the Korean scientists and philosphers of his day to create the alphabet. Therefore, Hangul is probably the easiest language to read. The shape of each letter corresponds to phonetic sound.
KOREAN
The King and his committee of scholars designed the alphabet to be simple enough for any 'layman' person of the day to be able to read and write their own language. Up until this time, Korean could only be written in Chinese (which was completely different than the spoken language). Chinese was still the dominate means of published writings until the 1950's. After the Korean War, a nationalistic movement brought forth changes which included that billboards, shop windows, and office directories in public buildings be written in Hangul.   Visit the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures