Lee In-young: "Compilation of the Gyoremal Big Dictionary Must Continue Regardless of Politics and Security"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] On the 25th, Lee In-young, Minister of Unification, said regarding the 'Gyeoremal Geun Sajeon' (Great Dictionary of the Korean Language) jointly compiled by South and North Korea, "The work of collecting and selecting our language must continue regardless of political and security situations."

Minister Lee made these remarks in a video congratulatory message at the 2nd UNESCO-Gyeoremal Geun Sajeon International Academic Forum held at the 63 Convention Center in Yeouido, Seoul, saying, "Unfortunately, as inter-Korean relations have become deadlocked, the compilation project of the Gyeoremal Geun Sajeon seems to have come to a halt."

The Gyeoremal Geun Sajeon began during the Roh Moo-hyun administration to prepare for linguistic unification between South and North Korea, but the compilation work has been suspended since 2016 due to the deterioration of inter-Korean relations.

Minister Lee stated, "The joint compilation project of the Gyeoremal Geun Sajeon holds truly important significance not only in preserving our language together but also in creating a cultural foundation for unification," adding, "the longer the time passes without exchange of spoken and written language between South and North, the greater the linguistic differences will become, making mutual understanding increasingly difficult."

He then promised, "The government will continue to closely cooperate with the National Assembly and others to ensure that the compilation project of the Gyeoremal Geun Sajeon can proceed without interruption."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.