Gangdong-gu Named 'Best Institution' in Korean Language Officer Evaluation by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Establishing a Culture of Proper Korean Language Use in Everyday Life

Seoul’s Gangdong-gu (headed by Mayor Soohee Lee) announced on the 24th that it has been selected as the top-performing basic local government in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s evaluation of the "2025 Korean Language Officer Work."

Photo of the business agreement ceremony between Gangdong District and Sejong Korean Language and Culture Institute last January. Lee Soohee, Gangdong District Mayor, is the third from the right. Provided by Gangdong District.

The Korean Language Officer is responsible for refining the language used by public institutions to ensure it is easy to understand and accurate. This year, the Ministry evaluated the achievements of central government agencies, metropolitan and basic local governments, and education offices for the previous year, selecting four best-performing institutions and four excellent institutions. Gangdong-gu received high marks for its systematic, tailored education aimed at improving residents’ literacy and for its efforts to replace difficult administrative terminology with plain language.

After enacting the "Ordinance on the Promotion of the Korean Language in Gangdong-gu, Seoul" in 2016, the district designated a Korean Language Officer and has worked to spread the culture of proper Korean language use. Press releases are reviewed for terminology and sentence clarity before being uploaded to the district office website, ensuring policies are communicated in easy-to-understand terms. These efforts have also yielded tangible results in the public language sector of joint local government evaluations. Gangdong-gu achieved the highest results among Seoul’s autonomous districts in both the 2025 (based on 2024 performance) and 2026 (based on 2025 performance) evaluations.

The district has also consistently worked on refining the terminology of local regulations, providing staff training, and inspecting public language. It currently operates Korean literacy and language classes for non-literate adults and seniors, Korean language education for multicultural families, and literacy programs for children in partnership with specialized institutions.

Last year, Gangdong-gu participated in the "2025 Korean Language Officer Activation Support Project," supported by the Ministry and hosted by the Korean Language Culture Center Association, and established a one-on-one consultative body with the Sejong Korean Language and Culture Center. The two organizations have collaborated on language improvement consultations and training, as well as Korean Alphabet Day commemorative events. In January, they signed a business agreement and plan to expand the scope of their cooperation.

Soohee Lee, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, stated, "Public language is the most fundamental means of communicating with residents, and using it correctly is the starting point for building trust in administration. We will strive to communicate policies in language that everyone can easily understand and to foster a culture of proper Korean language use within the local community."

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