This image, captured from the Facebook page of the Ukrainian embassy in Seoul, shows spellings for Ukrainian names written in Ukrainian and Russian ways, respectively.
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s foreign ministry said Thursday it will spell and pronounce names of Ukrainian cities and other areas in the way Ukrainians want, shifting from the current style that only uses the Russian transliteration.
The move comes at the request of the Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul amid keen public attention to the Eastern European country’s armed conflict with the invading Russia.
“We have had consultations with the Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul and the National Institute of Korean Language over the issue and decided to follow the institute’s recommendation,” Choi Young-sam, the ministry’s spokesperson, told a regular press briefing.
Choi said the ministry will write the names in both versions side-by-side until the Korean language institute completes its official review on the matter.
“Depending on the review results, we will confirm how we write the names and share it with other government agencies,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian embassy requested “the Korean public and authorities to stop using the names of Ukrainian cities in their Russian transliteration.”
The Ukrainian capital, for one, is called “Kyiv” in Ukraine but “Kiev” in Russia. Largely, South Koreans have so far used the Russian version of the Romanized name and transliterated it into their language, Korean.
(Yonhap)
