"The Han River is written in English as 'Hangang River'..."It's not Han River".

ⓒYonhap News Agency

The Seoul Metropolitan Government requested on the 19th that the English notation of the Han River is "Hangang River."

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, there are citizens who are confused about the exact expression because the English notation of the Han River is used interchangeably in broadcasting, newspapers, and Internet portal sites.

In order to unify the English notation of Hangang Park and deliver the correct name to domestic and foreign tourists, the Seoul Metropolitan Government established a "plan to improve and promote foreign language labeling of facilities and promotional materials in Hangang Park" in 2010, and unified the official English notation of the Han River into "Hangang River."

Since then, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has enacted the "Guidelines for Translation and Labeling of Foreign Languages of Public Terms" order in 2020 to prepare a unified regulation for the English notation of natural place names.

According to this, in principle, natural place names are written in Roman letters and attribute translations are written together. For example, the Han River should be marked as "Hangang River" and Hallasan Mountain as "Hallasan Mountain".

Joo Yong-tae, head of the Future Han River Headquarters of Seoul Metropolitan Government, said, "It is time for the public and private sectors to cooperate to provide higher-quality tourism services in line with the increase in foreign tourists and to promote the Han River consistently. The Seoul Metropolitan Government will make various efforts to ensure that the correct English notation of the Han River is established in the future."

Reporter Lee Yu Na from Digital News Team.