who created hangeul?

Who Created Hangeul?

Hangeul was personally created by King Sejong the Great in 1443 and officially promulgated in 1446 during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea.
Unlike many writing systems that evolved over time, Hangeul was intentionally and scientifically designed as a completely new script.

What makes its creation especially remarkable is that King Sejong himself took the initiative, not merely delegating the task, but directly leading and overseeing its development. He was deeply motivated by his philosophy of “ae-min” (애민, 愛民)—a belief in caring for and empowering the common people.

At the time, written communication relied heavily on Classical Chinese, a foreign language that was extremely difficult for ordinary Koreans to learn. Only the elite, who had time and resources, could master it. This created a huge gap between the ruling class and the commoners in terms of literacy and participation in society.

"The people of my country cannot express their thoughts because they have no script of their own."
— From the Preface to Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음)

With this, he created Hangeul—originally called Hunminjeongeum, meaning “the correct sounds for the instruction of the people.”

He designed the letters based on sound principles, using articulatory phonetics for consonants and philosophical concepts (Heaven, Earth, and Human) for vowels. His goal was to make reading and writing easy, logical, and accessible to everyone, regardless of class or education level.