KPS 9566
Encyclopedia
KPS 9566 is a North Korea
n standard which specifies an ISO 2022-compliant 94x94 two-byte coded character set for the Hangul
writing system used for the Korean language
.
First published in 1993, it has since undergone several revisions in 1997, 2000 and 2003, mainly to enhance compatibility with Unicode
. These are commonly indicated by specifying the year (KPS 9566-97, 9566-2000 and 9566-2003).
In principle, KPS 9566 is similar to the South Korea
n KS X 1001
encoding, except that it uses a different ordering of characters to conform with North Korean lexicographical ordering standards. It is also notable for its inclusion of several special characters from North Korean political life, including the following:
Due to these special characters, there is currently no full round-trip compatibility between KPS 9566 and Unicode. This would require adding these characters to the Universal Character Set
, which the Unicode Consortium
refused in 2000. As KPS 9566 usage is limited outside North Korea, this incompatibility does not seem to have led to major problems so far.
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n standard which specifies an ISO 2022-compliant 94x94 two-byte coded character set for the Hangul
Hangul
Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...
writing system used for the Korean language
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
.
First published in 1993, it has since undergone several revisions in 1997, 2000 and 2003, mainly to enhance compatibility with Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
. These are commonly indicated by specifying the year (KPS 9566-97, 9566-2000 and 9566-2003).
In principle, KPS 9566 is similar to the South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n KS X 1001
KS X 1001
KS X 1001 is a South Korean coded character set standard to represent hangul and hanja characters on a computer. It is arranged as 94×94 table , therefore its code points are pairs of integers 1–94...
encoding, except that it uses a different ordering of characters to conform with North Korean lexicographical ordering standards. It is also notable for its inclusion of several special characters from North Korean political life, including the following:
- the logo of the Workers' Party of KoreaWorkers' Party of KoreaThe Workers' Party of Korea is the ruling Communist party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , commonly known as North Korea. It is also called the Korean Workers' Party...
, uncircled and circled (code points 12-01 and 12-02); - and two groups of three special-purpose characters which spell out the names of the North Korean leaders Kim Il-sungKim Il-sungKim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
and Kim Jong-ilKim Jong-ilKim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
respectively, in a special decorative font (code points 04-72 to 04-74 and 04-75 to 04-77, respectively). Interestingly, the syllables for Kim and Il, which are identical in the spelling of both names, are encoded twice.
Due to these special characters, there is currently no full round-trip compatibility between KPS 9566 and Unicode. This would require adding these characters to the Universal Character Set
Universal Character Set
The Universal Character Set , defined by the International Standard ISO/IEC 10646, Information technology — Universal multiple-octet coded character set , is a standard set of characters upon which many character encodings are based...
, which the Unicode Consortium
Unicode Consortium
The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization that coordinates the development of the Unicode standard. Its stated goal is to eventually replace existing character encoding schemes with Unicode and its standard Unicode Transformation Format schemes, claiming that many of the existing...
refused in 2000. As KPS 9566 usage is limited outside North Korea, this incompatibility does not seem to have led to major problems so far.