The Korean Character Code: A National Controversy, 1987-1995
Dongoh Park · IEEE Annals of the History of Computing · 2016
Adequately representing the Korean language has been a challenge since the earliest introduction of digital computing and computer-mediated communication. As a local solution to the more general problem of the internationalization of computer languages, the Korean government introduced a new standard character code known as KSC-5601 in 1987. This article traces the history of the Korean character code, from the introduction of the KSC-5601:1987 standard (which stirred up a decade of controversy that was as much political, economic, and cultural as it was technological) to the adoption of the Unicode system.