Gwanghwamun panel still mired in controversy

With just ten more days until the unveiling of the new name panel for Gwanghwamun, controvery is still raging over whether a Chinese version from 1867, the Hangeul version by the late President Park Chung-hee or a new Hangeul version using the font originally developed by King Sejong, the creator of the Korean writing system, should be used.

The Gwanghwamun gate, first built in 1395 as the main entrance to Gyeongbokgung Palace, has been repeatedly destroyed and then restored. The latest Gwanghwamun restoration project began in 2006, to restore the gate to its original form, correcting the renovation carried out using concrete during Park’s regime in 1963. That same year, Park wrote the gate’s name panel himself, in three Hangeul letters.

The new name panel that’s replacing what Park had written is currently being polished by Intangible Cultural Property Oh Ok-jin, a master engraver. It will be a restored version of the original signboard written by Lim Tae-young, head of the Gyeongbokgung reconstruction team and a general, in 1867. Lim had written the letters in Chinese characters.

Lee Dae-ro, president of Korea Hangeul Culture Society stressed that the new panel should be written in Hangeul, as the gate was named by King Sejong who created Hangeul, or the Korean writing system. “If you only think about the restoration of the architecture, then having the Chinese panel would be appropriate,” he said. “But we have to restore the meaning of our history, and what it really means is to preserve King Sejoing’s legacy. If we think in this perspective, the new panel must be written in Hangeul.”