Essays on Writing and Language in Honor - Sino-Platonic Papers

Schn~festsch?ifi: fisa,vs in Honor of John DeFrancis
LANGUAGE POLICIES AND LINGUISTIC DIVERGENCE IN THE TWO KOREAS
Ho-min Sohn, University of Hawaii
1. The physical insulation and ideological distinction between South (SK) and North Korea (NK)
since 1945 has given rise to a thick politico-social ddectal division, which is superimposed on the
long existing historico-geographical dialects.l This linguistic divergence has been accelerated not
only by the polarized political, ideological, and social differences, but also, more importantly, by
the different language policies adopted by the two governments.
The two societies may be summed up, in laymen's terms, as capitalism vs. socialism,
global dependence vs. self-reliance, free competition vs. tight control, traditionalism vs.
revolutionalism, openness vs. closedness, liberalism vs. prescriptivism, pluralism vs. uniformity,
and relative individualism vs. strong collectivism, as they apply respectively to SK and NK. This
polarization is reflected in the respective educational goals. The Charter of National Education of
SK stipulates that the basic objective of education is to foster people's way of life that will
contribute to the development of the nation and to a Renaissance of national culture, while
developing individuals' fullest potentialities. Under such a liberal atmosphere, Government
policies and scholars' efforts are effective only to the extent that they are compatible with the needs
and convenience of the public.
The main purpose of education in NK is "to bring up the rising generation into steadfast
revolutionaries who fight for society and people" (Article 39, the Constitution). The 5th Central
Committee Convention of the Workers Party set the direction of educational policy as
"revolutionazing all the people" so that they can actively participate in the policy of a communist
unification of Korea. A policy adopted at the Convention was that language should be used as a
means of thought-reform and of strengthening the people's consciousness of revolution and class
This paper is dedicated to Dr. John DeFrancis.