Languages
Native
Korean
99%
Language Samples
안녕하십니까, 어떻게 지내십니까?
Annyeonghashimnikka, eotteoke jinaeshimnikka?
Hello, how are you? (formal)
잘 지냅니다, 고맙습니다.
Jal jinaemnida, gomapseumnida.
I am doing well, thank you.
일, 이, 삼, 사, 오, 육, 칠, 팔, 구, 십
Il, i, sam, sa, o, yuk, chil, pal, gu, sip
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
North Korea uses the same Korean language and Hangul script as South Korea, but decades of political separation have produced diverging vocabulary, pronunciation, and official terminology. The North Korean standard is called Munhwaŏ (문화어, 'cultured language'), centred on the Pyongyang dialect, while South Korea uses Seoul-based Pyojunŏ. North Korea actively purged Chinese and English loanwords, replacing them with native Korean coinages, while South Korea absorbed large numbers of English borrowings. Despite these differences, the two varieties remain mutually intelligible.
Similar Languages
South Korean Korean
95%
Japanese
35%
Media
Pyongyang skyline, the capital city whose dialect forms the basis of North Korea's standard spoken Korean.
Photo: ASDFGHJ (talk) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Did You Know
01
North Korea calls its standard language Munhwaŏ ('cultured language') and deliberately removed thousands of Chinese and English loanwords, replacing them with invented native Korean words.
02
The two Koreas have diverged enough that a dictionary of North–South vocabulary differences runs to hundreds of pages, though speakers can still understand each other with effort.
03
North Korean texts use Hangul almost exclusively, while South Korean texts occasionally still mix in Chinese characters (hanja) in formal or academic contexts.