2010-07 - Korea IT Times

Column
Computer United,
The Republic of Korea
ByChoiSeong
(sstar@nsu.ac.kr)
Dr. Choi Seong, Professor of Computer Science at
Namseoul University
As the separation of the division between
the North and South Korea is becoming
more firm, their everyday language
and even the technical languages
are becoming more different every day.
Language is important in suggesting actions,
so it is important to organize a unification
of languages between the people of
North and South Korea. Especially the
rapidly changing IT language which is
very different in each country.
In this sense, it is preferable that the
North and South scholars are contacting
each other, such as opening seminars regarding
the unification of the IT language.
Pondering and solving such problems in
everyday lives, together, can also speed up
the unification. The most important thing
in the IT area is the unification of the basic
keyboard to enter data into the computer.
The most crucial thing in character management
in the computers is the typing
characters. There was a technology called
the "mechanization of Korean" in the
typewriter era. A representative example is
the Korean typewriter that copied the mechanical
shapes of English typewriters in
the 1950s. From the invention of such
Korean typewriters, many people have
been experiencing the battles between the
2 rows, 3 rows, or the 4 rows arrangements
for about 30 years. That is because
the keyboard arrangement or the entering
technology is that important. However,
North Korea is showing much effort in developing
IT personnel to advance the IT
industry. What is the computer keyboard
that is used in North Korea that is dreaming
of the huge leap in the IT industry?
First, the arrangement is different. In
North Korea, the computer keyboard is
normally called a keyboard. North and
South Korea both use the 2 row systems
that do not distinguish between the initial
sounds and the last sound and the consonants
are on the left side and the vowels
are on the right side. However, the alphabet
arrangement is different from South
Korea's.
The reason the alphabet arrangements
are different is because North Korea does
not apply the rules regarding the initial
sound of the syllable and use the consonants,
such as the L and N quite often and
have placed these consonants in the middle.
The cause is the difference between
the languages of the South and the North
Korea. Also, in the arrangement order,
South Korea generally organizes them in
the orders of the shape of the characters
but North Korea is using the phonetic value
orders. The shape of the North Korean
keyboard according to the national criteria
(KPS) was compared with the South
Korean keyboard in the figure. North
Korea has established the "Morning-
Panther Computer cooperative company"
to assemble and sell the computers, but because
of the low hardware production,
majority of the keyboards are foreignmade.
Therefore, the majority of the keyboards
used have the English alphabets
but the Korean alphabets are not shown
on the keyboard. Therefore, most of the
computer users are using the keyboard by
memorizing the order. Just like when we
prepared for the music test by drawing the
piano keyboard onto a piece of paper because
there were very few pianos, the
North Korean students practice their typing
by drawing the keyboard on the pieces
of paper. Also, on the North Korean keyboard,
there is no Korean/ English converting
key or a Chinese character converting
key.
If we were to achieve unification unexpectedly,
it becomes a serious problem
when computer keyboards are not unified
between North and the South Korea. If
the language and the entering system are
different, then it can cause chaos, just like
we experienced in the earlier stages of
computer distribution.
A scientific arrangement and education
of the computer keyboards are an important
basic technology in the IT era. Therefore,
the Korean Language Information
Association and the North Korean Language
Association and Chinese Korean
Language Associations have been carrying
out much interaction and cooperation
with the linguists and information technology
experts to establish the standards of
Korean arrangement and a unified keyboard
since the mid-90s.
However, the keyboard and entering
codes have not been established as a national
standard for the whole of Korea.
We need continuous exchange, conversations
and cooperation among the South,
North and the Chinese (Chosun people)
more than before.
It would be preferable to distribute the
Korean computer unified keyboard under
the agreement of the Korean IT scholars in
South, North and the Chinese (Chosun)
Korea. Also, if possible, hosting a South,
North and Chinese "Korean unified computer
keyboard competition" is a solution
to unify the alienated language cultures.
64 KOREA IT TIMES | July 2010